furtive

Use Furtive in a sentence

adjective

taken, done, used, etc., surreptitiously or by stealth; secret: a furtive glance.

sly; shifty: a furtive manner.

Origin:
1480–90; < Latin furtīvus, equivalent to furt(um) theft (compare fūr thief) + -īvus -ive

Related forms

fur·tive·ly, adverb

fur·tive·ness, noun

Synonyms
1. clandestine, covert. 2. underhand, cunning.

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To furtive

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World English Dictionary

furtive (ˈfɜːtɪv)

—*adj*
	characterized by stealth; sly and secretive

[C15: from Latin furtīvus stolen, clandestine, from furtum a theft, from fūr a thief; related to Greek phōr thief]

'furtively

—*adv*

'furtiveness

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Word Origin & History

furtive

late 15c., from Fr. furtif, from L. furtivus "stolen, hidden, secret," from furtum "theft, robbery," from fur (gen. furis) "thief." Related: Furtiveness

Example sentences

The nature of her occupation kept her to furtive corners and the dark side of

streets.

Remember, the officer doesn't know who you are at this point and may feel

threatened by any furtive movements.

And their furtive huddling and divided sympathies do hold some perceptive

ironies on human behavior.

But that was not why fishermen were giving him furtive, curious glances.

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Matching Quote

"On starlight nights I used to pace up and down those long, cold streets, scowling at the little, sleeping houses on either side, with their storm-windows and covered back porches. They were flimsy shelters, most of them poorly built of light wood, with spindle porch-posts horribly mutilated by the turning-lathe. Yet for all their frailness, how much jealousy and envy and unhappiness some of them managed to contain! The life that went on in them seemed to me made up of evasions and negations; shifts to save cooking, to save washing and cleaning, devices to propitiate the tongue of gossip. This guarded mode of existence was like living under a tyranny. People's speech, their voices, their very glances, became furtive and repressed. Every individual taste, every natural appetite, was bridled by caution. The people asleep in those houses, I thought, tried to live like the mice in their own kitchens; to make no noise, to leave no trace, to slip over the surface of things in the dark."

-Willa Cather