COVERT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does covert mean? 

• COVERT (noun)
  The noun COVERT has 2 senses:

1. a flock of coots

2. a covering that serves to conceal or shelter something

  Familiarity information: COVERT used as a noun is rare.

• COVERT (adjective)
  The adjective COVERT has 2 senses:

1. secret or hidden; not openly practiced or engaged in or shown or avowed

2. (of a wife) being under the protection of her husband

  Familiarity information: COVERT used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COVERT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A flock of coots

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("covert" is a kind of...):

flock (a group of birds)

Meronyms (members of "covert"):

coot (slate-black slow-flying birds somewhat resembling ducks)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A covering that serves to conceal or shelter something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

concealment; cover; covert; screen

Context example:

the simplest concealment is to match perfectly the color of the background

Hypernyms ("covert" is a kind of...):

covering (an artifact that covers something else (usually to protect or shelter or conceal it))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "covert"):

blind (a hiding place sometimes used by hunters (especially duck hunters))

camouflage (device or stratagem for concealment or deceit)

shoji (a translucent screen made of a wooden frame covered with rice paper)

stalking-horse (screen consisting of a figure of a horse behind which a hunter hides while stalking game)

• COVERT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Secret or hidden; not openly practiced or engaged in or shown or avowed

Context example:

covert funding for the rebels

Similar:

secret (indulging only covertly)

undisclosed; unrevealed (not made known)

under wraps (kept secret)

subterranean; subterraneous; ulterior (lying beyond what is openly revealed or avowed (especially being kept in the background or deliberately concealed))

behind-the-scenes; sub-rosa; under-the-table (designed and carried out secretly or confidentially)

secret (communicated covertly)

cloaked; disguised; masked (having its true character concealed with the intent of misleading)

collusive; conniving (acting together in secret toward a fraudulent or illegal end)

clandestine; cloak-and-dagger; hole-and-corner; hugger-mugger; hush-hush; secret; surreptitious; undercover; underground (conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods)

black ((of intelligence operations) deliberately misleading)

backstair; backstairs; furtive (secret and sly or sordid)

Also:

implicit; inexplicit (implied though not directly expressed; inherent in the nature of something)

concealed (hidden on any grounds for any motive)

invisible; unseeable (impossible or nearly impossible to see; imperceptible by the eye)

Antonym:

overt (open and observable; not secret or hidden)

Derivation:

covertness (the state of being covert and hidden)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(of a wife) being under the protection of her husband

Context example:

a woman covert

Similar:

protected (kept safe or defended from danger or injury or loss)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

 Context examples 

After stooping to put the bottle on the ground, he looked up at the windows, and looked about; though with a covert and impatient air, as if he was anxious to be gone.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A device designed to covert a signal or message to a coded version.

(Encoder Device Component, NCI Thesaurus)

Yes; and he was up again at eight to ride to covert.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

In vain Amy telegraphed the word 'talk', tried to draw her out, and administered covert pokes with her foot.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Had he treated you as an especial favourite, you would have found enemies, declared or covert, all around you; as it is, the greater number would offer you sympathy if they dared.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Jane Fairfax's perception seemed to accompany his; her comprehension was certainly more equal to the covert meaning, the superior intelligence, of those five letters so arranged.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

He was under Miller, as third lieutenant of the Theseus, when our fleet, like a pack of eager fox hounds in a covert, was dashing from Sicily to Syria and back again to Naples, trying to pick up the lost scent.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

While old One Eye, the wolf crouching in the covert, played his part, too, in the game, waiting for some strange freak of Chance, that might help him on the meat-trail which was his way of life.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

In the days that followed, as Dawson grew closer and closer, Buck still continued to interfere between Spitz and the culprits; but he did it craftily, when François was not around, With the covert mutiny of Buck, a general insubordination sprang up and increased.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

But I declined these offers; being already aware that there were plenty of such covert practitioners in existence, and considering the Commons quite bad enough, without my doing anything to make it worse.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)