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ublic notice, usually for an evil purpose; kept secret; hidden; private; underhand; as, a clandestine marriage. Locke.

To depart clandestinely; to steal off and secrete one's self; -- used especially of persons who withdraw to avoid a legal process; as, an absconding debtor. That very homesickness which, in regular armies, drives so many recruits to abscond. Macaulay.

To wound by clandestine detraction; to censure meanly or spitefully (as absent person); to slander or speak evil of (one absent). Spenser.

Conducted with secrecy; clandestine; concealed. [Obs.] Not close and clancular, but frank and open. Barrow.

retics or schismatics. The first Christians could never have had recourse to nocturnal or clandestine conventicles till driven to them by the violence of persecution. Hammond. A sort of men who . . . attend its [the curch of England's] service in the morning, and go with their wives to a conventicle in the afternoon. S…

To move in a stealthy or secret manner; to move imperceptibly or clandestinely; to steal in; to insinuate itself or one's self; as, age creeps upon us. The sothistry which creeps into most of the books of argument. Locke. Of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women. 2. Tim. iii. 6.…

nation. "Achilles cut him short, and thus replied." Dryden. -- To cut stick, to make off clandestinely or precipitately. [Slang] -- To cut teeth, to put forth teeth; to have the teeth pierce through the gum and appear. -- To have cut one's eyeteeth, to be sharp and knowing. [Colloq.] -- To cut one's wisdom teeth, to…

Secret; clandestine; sly.

or out of, something; -- usually with in or out. To leak out, to be divulged gradually or clandestinely; to become public; as, the facts leaked out.

To take clandestinely or fraudulently. He pocketed pay in the names of men who had long been dead. Macaulay. To pocket a ball (Billiards), to drive a ball into a pocket of the table. -- To pocket an insult, affront, etc., to receive an affront without open resentment, or without seeking redress. "I must pocket up thes…

Secret; clandestine. " A privee thief." Chaucer.

Fig.: To convey or introduce clandestinely.

To withdraw or convey clandestinely (reflexive); hence, to creep furtively, or to insinuate. They could insinuate and steal themselves under the same by their humble carriage and submission. Spenser. He will steal himself into a man's favor. Shak.

The bringing to pass anything in a secret or concealed manner; a secret procedure; a clandestine practice or action; -- in either a good or a bad sense. Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame. Pope. The monarch, blinded with desire of wealth, With steel invades the brother's life by stealth. Dryden. I told him o…

Done by stealth; accomplished clandestinely; unperceived; secret; furtive; sly. [Withered murder] with his stealthy pace, . . . Moves like a ghost. Shak.

Done or made by stealth, or without proper authority; made or introduced fraudulently; clandestine; stealthy; as, a surreptitious passage in an old manuscript; a surreptitious removal of goods. -- Sur`rep*ti"tious*ly, adv.

To aid clandestinely. [Obs.]

Secret; clandestine; hence, mean; unfair; fraudulent. Addison.

Underhand; clandestine.

Fig.: To remove the foundation or support of by clandestine means; to ruin in an underhand way; as, to undermine reputation; to undermine the constitution of the state. He should be warned who are like to undermine him. Locke.