FURTIVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does furtive mean? 

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

1. marked by quiet and caution and secrecy; taking pains to avoid being observed

2. secret and sly or sordid

  Familiarity information: FURTIVE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FURTIVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Marked by quiet and caution and secrecy; taking pains to avoid being observed

Synonyms:

furtive; sneak; sneaky; stealthy; surreptitious

Context example:

a surreptitious glance at his watch

Similar:

concealed (hidden on any grounds for any motive)

Derivation:

furtiveness (a disposition to be sly and stealthy and to do things surreptitiously)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Secret and sly or sordid

Synonyms:

backstair; backstairs; furtive

Context example:

furtive behavior

Similar:

covert (secret or hidden; not openly practiced or engaged in or shown or avowed)

Derivation:

furtiveness (a disposition to be sly and stealthy and to do things surreptitiously)

 Context examples 

A lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking, was waiting for us upon the platform.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There had been a furtive step past the door.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My mother, however, had such confidence either in his good nature or in her own powers of persuasion, that she already began to make furtive preparations for my departure.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There we found Mr. James Wilder, demure and courtly, but with some trace of that wild terror of the night before still lurking in his furtive eyes and in his twitching features.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Out of the one wood and into the other they passed, all with the same crouching, furtive gait, until the black bristle of trees had swallowed up the last of them.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Now I am in the garden at the back, beyond the yard where the empty pigeon-house and dog-kennel are—a very preserve of butterflies, as I remember it, with a high fence, and a gate and padlock; where the fruit clusters on the trees, riper and richer than fruit has ever been since, in any other garden, and where my mother gathers some in a basket, while I stand by, bolting furtive gooseberries, and trying to look unmoved.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He no longer sprawled and straddled, and already he was developing the gait of his mother, slinking and furtive, apparently without exertion, yet sliding along with a swiftness that was as deceptive as it was imperceptible.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Martin dispensed royal largess, inviting everybody up, farm-hands, a stableman, and the gardener's assistant from the hotel, the barkeeper, and the furtive hobo who slid in like a shadow and like a shadow hovered at the end of the bar.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Now that we had the clue to his action, each of us could cast back and remember some sinister act upon the part of the half-breed—his constant desire to know our plans, his arrest outside our tent when he was over-hearing them, the furtive looks of hatred which from time to time one or other of us had surprised.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His heavily thatched eyebrows covered quick, furtive grey eyes, and his gaunt features were hollowed at the cheek and temple like water-grooved flint.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)