| / English Dictionary |
COVERT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A covering that serves to conceal or shelter something
Example:
the simplest concealment is to match perfectly the color of the background
Synonyms:
concealment; cover; covert; screen
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("covert" is a kind of...):
covering (an artifact that covers something else (usually to protect or shelter or conceal it))
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "covert"):
blind (a hiding place sometimes used by hunters (especially duck hunters))
camouflage (device or stratagem for concealment or deceit)
shoji (a translucent screen made of a wooden frame covered with rice paper)
stalking-horse (screen consisting of a figure of a horse behind which a hunter hides while stalking game)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A flock of coots
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("covert" is a kind of...):
flock (a group of birds)
Meronyms (members of "covert"):
coot (slate-black slow-flying birds somewhat resembling ducks)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Secret or hidden; not openly practiced or engaged in or shown or avowed
Example:
covert funding for the rebels
Classified under:
Similar:
undisclosed; unrevealed (not made known)
under wraps (kept secret)
subterranean; subterraneous; ulterior (lying beyond what is openly revealed or avowed (especially being kept in the background or deliberately concealed))
behind-the-scenes; sub-rosa; under-the-table (designed and carried out secretly or confidentially)
secret (communicated covertly)
cloaked; disguised; masked (having its true character concealed with the intent of misleading)
collusive; conniving (acting together in secret toward a fraudulent or illegal end)
secret (indulging only covertly)
clandestine; cloak-and-dagger; hole-and-corner; hugger-mugger; hush-hush; secret; surreptitious; undercover; underground (conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods)
black ((of intelligence operations) deliberately misleading)
backstair; backstairs; furtive (secret and sly or sordid)
Also:
implicit; inexplicit (implied though not directly expressed; inherent in the nature of something)
concealed (hidden on any grounds for any motive)
invisible; unseeable (impossible or nearly impossible to see; imperceptible by the eye)
Antonym:
overt (open and observable; not secret or hidden)
Derivation:
covertness (the state of being covert and hidden)
Sense 2
Meaning:
(of a wife) being under the protection of her husband
Example:
a woman covert
Classified under:
Similar:
protected (kept safe or defended from danger or injury or loss)
Domain category:
jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)
Context examples:
No, not if it were to be by the side of Barton covert, and they were kept watching for two hours together.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
A sneer, however, whether covert or open, had now no longer that power over me it once possessed: as I sat between my cousins, I was surprised to find how easy I felt under the total neglect of the one and the semi- sarcastic attentions of the other—Eliza did not mortify, nor Georgiana ruffle me.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
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