| / English Dictionary |
STEALTHY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Irregular inflected forms: stealthier , stealthiest
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Marked by quiet and caution and secrecy; taking pains to avoid being observed
Example:
a surreptitious glance at his watch
Synonyms:
furtive; sneak; sneaky; stealthy; surreptitious
Classified under:
Similar:
concealed (hidden on any grounds for any motive)
Derivation:
stealth (avoiding detection by moving carefully)
stealthiness (a disposition to be sly and stealthy and to do things surreptitiously)
Context examples:
At last I ran away myself, whenever I saw an emissary of the police approaching with some new intelligence; and lived a stealthy life until he was tried and ordered to be transported.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Again there was a long silence, and I had begun to fear that it was a false alarm, when a stealthy step was heard upon the other side of the hut, and a moment later a metallic scraping and clinking.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
As we stood, front to front, I saw so plainly, in the stealthy exultation of his face, what I already so plainly knew; I mean that he forced his confidence upon me, expressly to make me miserable, and had set a deliberate trap for me in this very matter; that I couldn't bear it.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
It was no fancy of mine about his hands, I observed; for he frequently ground the palms against each other as if to squeeze them dry and warm, besides often wiping them, in a stealthy way, on his pocket-handkerchief.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
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