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''clandestine'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260125123911-00-⌔

clandestine - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adjective

clandestine (comparative more clandestine, superlative most clandestine)

  • Done or kept in secret, sometimes to conceal an illicit or improper purpose.
    • ✤ Synonyms: covert, furtive, hush-hush, secret, secretive, undercover; see also Thesaurus: covert
    • ✤ * clandestine military operations*
    • ✤ Monimia, who while she yielded to his earnest entreaties had always felt, from the natural rectitude of her understanding, the impropriety of their clandestine correspondence, would, he feared, be more than ever sensible of her indiscretion, when she found that a servant was entrusted with it…1
    • ✤ Whether the torments of absence were softened by a clandestine correspondence, let us not inquire. Mr. and Mrs. Morland never did.2
    • ✤ Wildeve’s clandestine plan with her was to take a little gravel in his hand and hold it to the crevice at the top of the window shutter, which was on the outside, so that it should fall with a gentle rustle, resembling that of a mouse, between shutter and glass.3
    • ✤ Lady Bullingdon could not, of course, countenance such an arrangement for a moment, and the two unhappy persons escaped for a clandestine marriage.4
    • ✤ Bodies were always a nuisance — even the small guinea-pig bodies from the slight clandestine experiments in West’s room at the boarding-house.5
    • ✤ Probably, the Master-at-arms’ clandestine persecution of Billy was started to try the temper of the man…6
    • ✤ The only diversions I recall were a pair of Avocets flying over, and a young lady who regularly each afternoon furtively crept into the dunes […] and crouched down for a clandestine wee!7
    • ✤ As I stand at the edge of existence; nameless shores of infinity. Perpetual unbirth unraveling distance, clandestine truths unveiled.8
    • ✤ In my imagination, all work place encounters between men and women result in clandestine sex.9
    • ✤ And I don’t want anyone to think I dislike Catholicism because I don’t. It’s actually my favourite form of clandestine global evil.10
    • ✤ And (Wouter) Basson (who had worked on South Africa’s clandestine bioweapons program) was there, too.11
  • (Freemasonry, of a person or lodge) Not recognized as a regular member.

Etymology

From Latin clandestīnus (“secret, concealed”); compare French clandestin.

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /klænˈdɛst(a)ɪn/, /klænˈdɛs.tən/, /ˈklændɪst(a)ɪn/, /ˈklændəst(a)ɪn/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
  • Audio (Australian): 🔊
  • Hyphenation: clan‧des‧tine
  • Rhymes: -ɛstɪn

Printed 2026-06-28.

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Footnotes

  1. 1793, Charlotte Smith, chapter 1, in The Old Manor House, volume 3: ↩

  2. 1818, Jane Austen, chapter 31, in Northanger Abbey: ↩

  3. 1878, Thomas Hardy, chapter 11, in The Return of the Native: ↩

  4. 1912, G. K. Chesterton, chapter 9, in Manalive: ↩

  5. 1922, H. P. Lovecraft, Herbert West: Reanimator: ↩

  6. 1924, Herman Melville, chapter 13, in Billy Budd: ↩

  7. 1983, Bill Oddie, Gone Birding, London: Methuen, page 128: ↩

  8. 2003, “Fugue”, in Trivium (music), Ember To Inferno: ↩

  9. 2004, Penny Arcade: ↩

  10. 2005 — Stewart Lee, 90’s Comedian DVD ↩

  11. 2009 March 29, Olivia Ward, “The shadowy world of bioweapons”, in Toronto Star ‎, archived from the original on 27 December 2011: ↩

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