What is another word for furtive?

Pronunciation: [fˈɜːtɪv] (IPA)

Furtive is an adjective that describes something that is done in a secretive, stealthy, or sneaky manner. Some common synonyms for furtive include sly, covert, clandestine, hidden, surreptitious, sneaky, undercover, and back-alley. These words all convey a sense of secrecy or a desire to remain unnoticed. For instance, sly is often used to describe someone who is clever or cunning in their actions. Covert and clandestine are often used in espionage or other secret operations. Hidden and surreptitious both describe actions or behaviors that are meant to be concealed. Meanwhile, sneaky and back-alley tend to be used more informally to describe actions that are done in secret or without others' knowledge.

Synonyms for Furtive:

What are the hypernyms for Furtive?

A hypernym is a word with a broad meaning that encompasses more specific words called hyponyms.

What are the opposite words for furtive?

The word "furtive" implies secrecy, slyness, and cautiousness. To find an antonym for furtive, one must look for words that describe open, direct, and straightforward behavior. Some potential antonyms for furtive might include candid, forthright, honest, open, overt, and sincere. These words suggest a lack of deception or concealment, and instead reflect a willingness to be upfront and honest in one's actions and communications. Using an antonym for "furtive" can help to convey a more positive or trustworthy attitude, and may be useful in a variety of writing contexts.

Usage examples for Furtive

And yet the working woman, sitting there, looked at Mrs. Kaye with a certain furtive sympathy.
"Jane Oglander"
Marie Belloc Lowndes
There was a stir within, and Val, still pale, and with an almost furtive expression in her eyes, opened the door and looked out.
"Lonesome Land"
B. M. Bower
Hames was a big, bronze-faced man, plainly dressed in city clothes, but there was, Nasmyth noticed, a trace of half-furtive uneasiness in his eyes.
"The Greater Power"
Harold Bindloss W. Herbert Dunton

Famous quotes with Furtive

  • One could divine pretty nearly where the force lay, since the last ten years had given to the great mechanical energies — coal, iron, steam — a distinct superiority in power over the old industrial elements — agriculture, handwork, and learning; but the result of this revolution on a survivor from the fifties resembled the action of the earthworm; he twisted about, in vain, to recover his starting-point; he could no longer see his own trail; he had become an estray; a flotsam or jetsam of wreckage; a belated reveller, or a scholar-gipsy like Matthew Arnold's. His world was dead. Not a Polish Jew fresh from Warsaw or Cracow — not a furtive Yacoob or Ysaac still reeking of the Ghetto, snarling a weird Yiddish to the officers of the customs — but had a keener instinct, an intenser energy, and a freer hand than he — American of Americans, with Heaven knew how many Puritans and Patriots behind him, and an education that had cost a civil war.
    Henry Adams
  • Sometimes the haunting hunger drove the little dog out of his woodlot hiding places by day. But only when hunger became bigger than fear. Only on days when he had not been able to find a dead rabbit or crow, or hadn't been able to catch a quick, scurrying field mouse. On such days he would emerge from his shadowy woodlots. By secret avenues of hedgerow and fencerow he would whip himself across the furtive fields to still another woodlot. In the hope of finding something dead there, or of catching a mouse there. In that hope.
    Meindert DeJong
  • I disagree with Les. We always found good cunt at the Lyceum. Friendly cunt, clean cunt, spare cunt, jeans and knicker stuffed full of nice juicy hairy cunt, handfuls of cunt, palmful grabbing the cunt by the stem, or the root – infantile memories of cunt – backrow slides – slithery oily cunt, the cunt that breathes – the cunt that’s neatly wrapped in cotton, in silk, in nylon, that announces, that speaks or thrusts, that winks that’s squeezed in a triangle of furtive cloth backed by an arse that’s creamy, springy billowy cushiony tight, knicker lined, knicker skinned, circumscribed by flowers and cotton, by views, clinging knicker, juice ridden knicker, hot knicker, wet knicker, swelling vulva knicker, witty cunt, teeth smiling the eyes biting cunt, cultured cunt, culture vulture cunt, finger biting cunt, cunt that pours, cunt that spreads itself over your soft lips, that attacks, cunt that imagines – cunt you dream about, cunt you create as a Melba, a meringue with smooth sides – remembered from school boys’ smelly first cunt, first foreign cunt, amazing cunt – cunt that’s cruel. Cunt that protects itself and makes you want it even more cunt – cunt that smells of the air, of the earth, of bakeries, of old apples, of figs, of sweat of hands of sour yeast of fresh fish cunt. So – are we going Les? We might pick up a bit of crumpet.
    Steven Berkoff
  • 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
  • I was scuttling along in my usual furtive way, suspecting no ill, when a large invisible thumb descended from the sky and pressed down on the top of my head. A poem formed.
    Margaret Atwood

Related words: stealthy movement, sneaky behavior, furtiveness, stealth mode, stealth scenario, stealthy mode, clandestine activity

Related questions:

  • What are the causes of furtive movements?
  • Is it normal to have furtive movements?
  • Why do people have furtive movements?
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