Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Not openly practiced, avowed, engaged in, accumulated, or shown: synonym: secret.
  • adjective Covered or covered over; sheltered.
  • adjective Law Being married and therefore protected by one's husband.
  • noun A covering or cover.
  • noun A covered place or shelter; hiding place.
  • noun Thick underbrush or woodland affording cover for game.
  • noun Zoology One of the small feathers covering the bases of the longer feathers of a bird's wings or tail.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To cover.
  • Covered; hidden; private; secret; concealed; disguised.
  • Sheltered; not open or exposed: as, a covert place.
  • In law, under cover, authority, or protection: said of a married woman. See feme covert, under feme.
  • noun A protection; a shelter; a defense; something that covers and shelters.
  • noun Something that conceals or hides; a screen; a disguise; a pretext; an excuse.
  • noun A thicket; a shady place or a hiding-place; a cover for game.
  • noun Same as coverture, 3.
  • noun In fowling, a company; a flock.
  • noun plural In ornithology, feathers covering the bases, or more, of the large feathers of the wing or tail; the tectrices.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A place that covers and protects; a shelter; a defense.
  • noun (Zoöl.) One of the special feathers covering the bases of the quills of the wings and tail of a bird. See Illust. of Bird.
  • adjective Covered over; private; hid; secret; disguised.
  • adjective Sheltered; not open or exposed; retired; protected.
  • adjective (Law) Under cover, authority or protection.
  • adjective (Fort.) See Covered way, under Covered.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Hidden, covered over; overgrown, sheltered.
  • adjective figuratively Secret, surreptitious, concealed.
  • noun Area of thick undergrowth where animals hide.
  • noun A feather that covers others

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a flock of coots
  • noun a covering that serves to conceal or shelter something
  • adjective (of a wife) being under the protection of her husband
  • adjective secret or hidden; not openly practiced or engaged in or shown or avowed

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from past participle of covrir, to cover; see cover.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French covert, past participle of covrir ("to cover") (corresponding to Latin coopertus); cognate to cover.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Wow, a venereal definition from Weirdnet!

    January 26, 2008

  • Yikes. Just don't Spoonerize it.

    January 27, 2008

  • Oh, it is not! Sheesh. *acting mock-offended for the birds*

    January 27, 2008

  • joantonym = overt

    April 25, 2008

  • A favorite wordsmith word. Drop first letter for "overt" or last letter for "cover" or both for "over".

    May 10, 2011