hideout
Americannoun
-
hideouts
plural
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of hideout
First recorded in 1870–75; noun use of verb phrase hide out
Explanation
A hideout is a secret place where someone can take refuge. Criminals or outlaws often lie low in a hideout to avoid being found by the police. A car thief might use his grandmother's apartment as a hideout to avoid detection. A group of ten year-olds might also have a hideout, a place that's protected from parents, bullies, older siblings, and anyone else who might interfere. Before the first use of hideout, in the 1880s, came the verb phrase hide out, or "hide from authorities," which was coined during the Civil War in reference to draft dodgers.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He was arrested a year later during an overnight raid on a jungle hideout.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
After a tipoff, intelligence services and police found two handguns and ammunition stashed in a hideout in the forest, Dobrindt said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
Pakistan's information chief said the strikes hit four targets, including a training camp, an ammunition cache and a hideout linked to two TTP commanders.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
A preliminary investigation into the man’s hideout found no signs of forced entry.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2026
I faded away from the crowd and hurried back to my hideout, being careful not to run, constantly glancing over my shoulder to make sure I wasn’t being followed.
From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline
He added that trained and equipped forest guards will be deployed to secure forests and other remote areas used as hideouts by criminal groups to supplement army operations.
From BBC ● Dec. 23, 2025
Scott has helped me understand that they remain hideouts and redoubts where we can still hope to find practices of liberty today.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
"United, we must respond to those facilitating them -- whether the hideouts are on our soil or Afghan soil."
From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2025
People Over Papers channels that same logic — only now the hideouts are ICE-free zones, mutual aid hubs and sanctuary spaces.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2025
In the woods, they built hideouts and sang forbidden songs, making up irreverent lyrics for the Hitler Youth songs.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
