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The state or quality of being hidden; as, his movements were detected in spite of their secrecy. The Lady Anne, Whom the king hath in secrecy long married. Shak.

lly used in South Australia, in which there is such an arrangement for polling votes that secrecy is compulsorily maintained, and the ballot used is an official ballot printed and distributed by the government.

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

Conducted with secrecy; withdrawn from public notice, usually for an evil purpose; kept secret; hidden; private; underhand; as, a clandestine marriage. Locke.

Privacy or secrecy. [R.]

In confidence; in reliance on secrecy.

Secrecy; privacy. [R.]

The condition of ignorance; gloom; secrecy. Look, what you do, you do it still i' th' dark. Shak. Till we perceive by our own understandings, we are as mucdark, and as void of knowledge, as before. Locke.

A state of privacy; secrecy. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light. Matt. x. 27.

One who business it is so detect criminals or discover matters of secrecy.

The act of divulging or publishing. [R.] Secrecy hath no use than divulgation. Bp. Hall.

Privacy; secrecy. Commonly in the phrase in hugger-mugger, with haste and secrecy. [Archaic] Many things have been done in hugger-mugger. Fuller.

eal to God for the truth of what is affirmed. "I have an oath in heaven" Shak. An oath of secrecy for the concealing of those [inventions] which we think fit to keep secret. Bacon.

The act of creeping upon with secrecy or by surprise. [Obs.] Cudworth.

Done or obtained by surprise; with secrecy, or by concealment of the truth. [R.] Cotgrave.

In an open manner; publicly; not in private; without secrecy. How grossly and openly do many of us contradict the precepts of the gospel by our ungodliness! Tillotson.

serious reflection; given to, or favorable to, earnest or melancholy musing. The pensive secrecy of desert cell. Milton. Anxious cares the pensive nymph oppressed. Pope.

The breast. In petto, in the breast; hence, in secrecy; in reserve.

Seclusion from company or society; retirement; privacy; secrecy. Bacon.

Privacy; secrecy; confidence. Chaucer. I will unto you, in privity, discover . . . my purpose. Spenser.