clandestine

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But people who engage in such dangerous, clandestine, and exciting exploits seldom regard them as peccadilloes; and though they may feel fearful while performing them and triumphant when they have finished, they don't feel undignified.

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Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. adjective Kept or done in secret, often in order to conceal an illicit or improper purpose. See Synonyms at secret.

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Examples

  • The assembly of this important night was in some degree clandestine, the design of treaty not being yet openly declared and when the Whigs returned to power was aggravated to a charge of high treason; though, as Prior remarks in his imperfect answer to the Report of the Committee of Secrecy, no treaty ever was made without private interviews and preliminary discussions. —  Lives of the English Poets: Prior, Congreve, Blackmore, Pope
  • The target area is always a trap because your work is clandestine, and by definition you are doing something illegal and will have the whole strength of the local police department against you the moment you make a mistake. —  The Sinkiang Executive
  • A single lamp, one of the crude clay bowls that have been used since ancient times, lit the room; the flickering, smoking flame created an eerie illusion of surreptitious movement in the shadows. —  The Mummy Case
  • But people who engage in such dangerous, clandestine, and exciting exploits seldom regard them as peccadilloes; and though they may feel fearful while performing them and triumphant when they have finished, they don't feel undignified. —  A Matter of Urgency
  • Some say the clandestine is the more dangerous. —  Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls or, War on the White Slave Trade
 

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Clandestine has been looked up 702 times, favorited 6 times, listed 158 times, and commented on 4 times.

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin clandestīnus, probably blend of *clam-de, secretly (from clam; see kel-1 in Indo-European roots) and intestīnus, internal; see intestine.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. = Dutch clandestien, from French clandestin = Spanish Portuguese Italian clandestino, from Latin clandestinus, secret, from clam (Old Latin calam, callim), secretly, from root of celare = Anglo-Saxon helan, hide (see conceal); the second element is uncertain.
 

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/klænˈdɛstɪn/
by American Heritage

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