How to Use surreptitious in a Sentence

surreptitious

adjective
Definition of surreptitiousnext
Synonyms for surreptitiousnext
  • She had a surreptitious relationship with her employee.
  • But most of the time there was no surreptitious upper hand to be gained.
    — Sophie Madeline Dess, The New Republic, 24 June 2020
  • Sure enough, with a surreptitious push of a button, a black-and-white cow had jumped out on the rail.
    — Dallas News, 22 Dec. 2022
  • She wasn’t bothered by the surreptitious phone-cleaning.
    — Katherine Bindley, WSJ, 25 May 2018
  • The office has no public waiting room, so there’s no risk of the surreptitious camera-phone shot.
    — Kenzie Bryant, vanityfair.com, 2 Aug. 2017
  • Even more troubling, what could hackers find out about you with full, surreptitious access to your phone?
    — Eric Limer, Popular Mechanics, 16 Dec. 2016
  • Impress him with my discretion, my knowledge of the surreptitious.
    — Katherine Dunn, The New Yorker, 4 May 2020
  • Among them is one verity that sets the company’s surreptitious nature at the center of its culture.
    — John Archibald | Jarchibald@al.com, al, 3 Aug. 2022
  • The hardest thing to replicate, for any novice, will be the surreptitious ease with which, in the latest film, Soderbergh shifts gear.
    — Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 4 Dec. 2020
  • The first mention of the surreptitious recordings came on Sept. 19.
    — Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times, 18 Oct. 2022
  • At any rate, there were other, more surreptitious ways to get under a quarterback's skin.
    — Creg Stephenson, AL.com, 25 May 2017
  • Not one to take no for an answer, Burbank tried some surreptitious application of ketchup on his hot dog.
    — CBS News, 1 July 2018
  • At this point in time, experts said there's little reason to fear surreptitious tracking — at least not from a microchip.
    — Camille Caldera, USA TODAY, 2 Aug. 2020
  • Historian Michael Beschloss notes that this was supposed to be the end of surreptitious recording.
    — Philip Bump, Washington Post, 12 May 2017
  • Kemp needled Cagle over the surreptitious recording that surfaced last month.
    — Chris Stirewalt, Fox News, 16 July 2018
  • Deep in the center of the rosebush and hidden from plain view, pests and disease can get a surreptitious foothold that can end up being very challenging to your entire rose garden.
    — Rita Perwich, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 May 2022
  • Officers then obtained a surreptitious second sample from their suspect to confirm the match.
    — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 30 Apr. 2018
  • Others remembered doing it on their knees beneath the table while casting surreptitious glances at servers.
    — Hannah Natanson, Washington Post, 14 July 2019
  • If a voter does not agree to an affidavit, volunteers would be able to use the surreptitious recordings of residents to generate one.
    — Bryan Schott, The Salt Lake Tribune, 6 Dec. 2021
  • Brian found someone who lived about 80 miles away and met the person late at night for a surreptitious handover.
    — John Kelly, Washington Post, 8 Apr. 2023
  • Apple has long built in protections against surreptitious use of AirTags.
    — Thomas Brewster, Forbes, 23 Mar. 2023
  • His face was also captured in an image on the surreptitious camera, authorities said.
    — David K. Li, NBC News, 21 Nov. 2019
  • In time, perhaps, the surreptitious payments Adidas is alleged to have arranged may be allowed in broad daylight.
    — Tim Sullivan, The Courier-Journal, 11 May 2018
  • And activists and lobbyists will leverage the opportunity to push their own agendas in all manner of inventive and surreptitious ways.
    — Pete Gelling, Quartz, 24 Sep. 2019
  • The surreptitious action is done, in part, to spare the wealthy Persian Gulf kingdom embarrassment, the bureau said.
    — oregonlive, 17 Jan. 2020
  • Christina went through all of that trouble to gain surreptitious access to the house because it was initially owned by a man named Horatio Winthrop.
    — Ariana Romero, refinery29.com, 31 Aug. 2020
  • The greatest threat to the election isn’t likely to be surreptitious voting fraud, but disruption, confrontation and efforts to limit voting that are in plain sight.
    — Michael Smolens Columnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 Oct. 2020
  • Aggressive efforts to root out bad actors have nabbed some surreptitious disinformation campaigns but have not stopped them.
    — Jessica Guynn, USA TODAY, 14 Dec. 2019
  • Detectives found evidence to support charges of surreptitious viewing of two victims, the release stated.
    — Mike Cruz, azcentral, 9 Aug. 2019
  • Parents fret over how to keep their kids safe from the internet’s myriad dangers, from bullies to predators to surreptitious surveillance.
    — WIRED, 3 Sep. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'surreptitious.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: