Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The character of being secretive; tendency or disposition to conceal; specifically, in phrenology, that quality the organ of which, when largely developed, is said to impel the individual toward secrecy or concealment. It is located at the inferior edge of the parietal bones. See cut under phrenology.
Wiktionary
- n. The state or characteristic of being secretive.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The quality of being secretive; disposition or tendency to conceal.
- n. (Phren.) The faculty or propensity which impels to reserve, secrecy, or concealment.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the trait of keeping things secret
- n. characterized by a lack of openness (especially about one's actions or purposes)
Examples
“His secretiveness is a start, but perhaps they could turn his good intentions in on him (kind of like what they did with Batman in The Dark Knight), choosing between two goods.”
“But secretiveness is really all this project has going for it (unlike yours truly, who, besides rock hard abs and the brainyism of an astrophysician, is cuddly like a kitty cat – call me ladies/androgynous young boys).”
“For instance, Matt argues thatThe Democratic Party is awash in secretiveness, and while there have been Kerry emails which explain a bit of polling, one is mostly kept in the dark as to the strategic direction of the campaign.”
“Their secretiveness is the result of the fear that if they give, it may chance that they may want.”
“This covers up also a good deal of business acumen, shrewdness, and secretiveness which is not so childlike and bland.”
You Never Know Your Luck; being the story of a matrimonial deserter. Volume 1.
“Ghetto are too murky and filthy to permit of the advantageous exposure of the merchandise in question; partly, probably, from an habitual consciousness on the part of the dealers that the details of their traffic in all its particulars are not of a nature to be safely submitted to the public eye; partly from that secretiveness which is the natural result of living for many generations from father to son under the tyranny of an alien race, whose bitterly hostile prejudices were but little restrained by law or justice; and partly also, no doubt, from the genuine Roman laziness, which in its perfection is capable of overriding even Jewish keenness of trade, -- the Jew brokers of the Ghetto are often unwilling to show their hidden stores to the first comer.”
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 17, No. 098, February, 1876
“A decade later, Paul undertakes writing a biography of Cecil Valance, only to encounter the usual obstacles: secretiveness, faltering memories, ossified reputations.”
“In Mr. Picard's original lawsuit, he said "Sterling Stamos personnel had repeatedly warned the Sterling Equities Partners that Madoff was 'too good to be true,' " based largely on the secretiveness of his operation.”
The Wall Street Journal: Mets Owners Accuse Madoff Trustee of Distorting Evidence
“**** Later, his inaccessibility and secretiveness created enemies, and Pan Am was left with few friends in Washington.”
The Huffington Post: Helen Davey: Pan Am: A Dream Takes Flight (Part III)
“Martin Kozlowski Nothing wakened their instincts more than the administration's insistence on its health-care bill — its whiff of totalitarian will, its secretiveness, its display of cold assurance that the new president's social agenda trumped everything.”
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