CLANDESTINE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does clandestine mean? 

• CLANDESTINE (adjective)
  The adjective CLANDESTINE has 1 sense:

1. conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods

  Familiarity information: CLANDESTINE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CLANDESTINE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods

Synonyms:

clandestine; cloak-and-dagger; hole-and-corner; hugger-mugger; hush-hush; secret; surreptitious; undercover; underground

Context example:

underground resistance

Similar:

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

 Context examples 

I am poorly qualified to judge of such matters, replied Agnes, with a modest hesitation, but I certainly feel—in short, I feel that your being secret and clandestine, is not being like yourself.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Whether the torments of absence were softened by a clandestine correspondence, let us not inquire.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Although shark fishing is banned in Brazil, the clandestine market continues, driven partly by the high prices shark fins fetch: up to US$1,000 per kilogram on the international market.

(New way to save endangered sharks – and our seafood, SciDev.Net)

Mr. Crawford was no longer the Mr. Crawford who, as the clandestine, insidious, treacherous admirer of Maria Bertram, had been her abhorrence, whom she had hated to see or to speak to, in whom she could believe no good quality to exist, and whose power, even of being agreeable, she had barely acknowledged.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

If it could not be done with Mr. Mills's sanction and concurrence, I besought a clandestine interview in the back kitchen where the Mangle was.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Stimulated by the silent monitor within, and by a no less touching and appealing monitor without—to whom I will briefly refer as Miss W. I entered on a not unlaborious task of clandestine investigation, protracted—now, to the best of my knowledge, information, and belief, over a period exceeding twelve calendar months.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)