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:
Tana had an unusual path to becoming the restaurant owner of the renowned Hollywood red-sauce hideout.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
"I'm not going to give up," Morales said from his hideout in the coca-growing region of Chapare, part of his political stronghold in the central Chochabamba department.
From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026
Military spokesperson Lt-Col Haruna M Sani described the assault on Boko Haram's Mandara mountain hideout, "under cover of darkness", as one of the military's "most significant hostage rescue operations" in the north-east.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2026
“In our view, OCBC’s solid balance sheet and sound asset quality metrics offer investors a good defensive hideout while still benefiting from the influx of liquidity and wealth flows into the country,” RHB says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026
Should she follow them to see if they led her to Pong’s hideout?
From "A Wish in the Dark" by Christina Soontornvat
Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said that "precise and calibrated strikes" targeted militant "hideouts and safe havens" in border areas, without commenting on civilian casualties.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
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
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
To fight an elusive enemy operating clandestinely at night and from hideouts deep in swamps and jungles, the U.S. military turned to environmental modification technologies.
From Salon ● Apr. 30, 2025
He’d probably stay away all day, holed up in one of his secret hideouts.
From "The Old Willis Place" by Mary Downing Hahn
Definitions 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.
