1
as in shady
given to acting in secret and to concealing one's intentions
a furtive guy who always seems to be up to something, and usually that something is no-good
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in clandestine
undertaken or done so as to escape being observed or known by others
gave each other furtive glances as we watched our friend open the booby-trapped soda
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of furtive
On that furtive call with Reacher, Duffy tells him the pickup truck and the Audi Richard Beck’s bodyguard were driving in the same police lot.
—
Chris Klimek, Vulture, 20 Feb. 2025
Over the past decade, furtive commercial entities around the world have industrialized the production, sale and dissemination of bogus scholarly research.
—Cyril Labbé, The Conversation, 31 Jan. 2025
Over the past decade, furtive commercial entities around the world have industrialized the production, sale and dissemination of bogus scholarly research, undermining the literature that everyone from doctors to engineers rely on to make decisions about human lives.
—Guillaume Cabanac, The Conversation, 29 Jan. 2025
At home, the atmosphere was decorous, curious, gentle; outside, the culture of the nineteen-fifties was tougher, valorizing war and papering over a darker, more furtive kind of violence.
—Joshua Rothman, The New Yorker, 25 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for furtive
Chris Klimek, Vulture, 20 Feb. 2025
Over the past decade, furtive commercial entities around the world have industrialized the production, sale and dissemination of bogus scholarly research.
—Cyril Labbé, The Conversation, 31 Jan. 2025
Over the past decade, furtive commercial entities around the world have industrialized the production, sale and dissemination of bogus scholarly research, undermining the literature that everyone from doctors to engineers rely on to make decisions about human lives.
—Guillaume Cabanac, The Conversation, 29 Jan. 2025
At home, the atmosphere was decorous, curious, gentle; outside, the culture of the nineteen-fifties was tougher, valorizing war and papering over a darker, more furtive kind of violence.
—Joshua Rothman, The New Yorker, 25 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for furtive
Recent Examples of Synonyms for furtive
Adjective
-
My garden has mostly shady areas with a small sunny bed.—
Tim Johnson,
Chicago Tribune,
8 June 2025
-
Give your dad the gift of peace of mind with a data removal service that scrubs his personal details from people-search sites and shady data brokers.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
8 June 2025
Adjective
-
The Square, from South Korean director Bo-Sol Kim, which blends political commentary with experimental animation in its story of a Swedish diplomat in Pyongyang who begins a clandestine affair with a local traffic officer, took the jury prize of the Contrechamps section.—
Scott Roxborough,
HollywoodReporter,
14 June 2025
-
During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Alcala — without school authorization — took wrestling mats from El Modena, had the wrestling team load them into a U-Haul truck, and then took them to a warehouse for clandestine practices, Plaintiff Two said.—
Scott Schwebke,
Oc Register,
13 June 2025
Adjective
-
Last week's finale, featuring host Scarlett Johansson and musical guest Bad Bunny, was packed with sly jokes hinting at big changes to the show's cast.—
Shania Russell,
EW.com,
25 May 2025
-
Trier and his longtime co-writer Eskil Vogt draw us in quickly to the family dynamic, establishing the sly ripples of humor that run through even the darker scenes.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
21 May 2025
Adjective
-
Imagine the chaos a stealthy dragonfly modified to carry diseases, munitions, or surveillance equipment would cause.—
Carl R. Gold,
Baltimore Sun,
8 June 2025
-
On TikTok, viewers were quick to react to Winston's stealthy fail.—
Lydia Patrick,
MSNBC Newsweek,
8 June 2025
Adjective
-
Russia's latest barrages followed last weekend's covert Ukrainian operation in which agents used more than 100 drones concealed in large trucks to attack strategic bomber bases deep inside Russia.—
David Brennan,
ABC News,
8 June 2025
-
Russia’s attacks on Friday come two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to retaliate against Ukraine for its highly successful Operation Spider’s Web covert strike on Russia on June 1.—
Christopher Tremoglie,
The Washington Examiner,
6 June 2025
Adjective
-
Though the two would've kept in touch over the years, it would be revealed in episode 2 that the sneaky little brown-noser with a hidden agenda was happily engaged to another woman and expecting his first child.—
Mekishana Pierre Published,
EW.com,
11 June 2025
-
Fraud Detection: No, Elon Musk Is Not Sponsoring You Some fraud is obvious, but some fraud is sneaky.—
Raghu Para,
Forbes.com,
6 June 2025
Adjective
-
So is this mystery novel secretly the story of The Gilded Age and is this an undercover crossover?—
Nick Romano,
EW.com,
6 June 2025
-
The missing money controlled by Velazquez was supposed to go toward undercover narcotics operations.—
Charles Rabin,
Miami Herald,
4 June 2025
Adjective
-
Claire, who blows in and out of Kate’s life, turns up one night pleading for help and telling tales about an accident involving her shifty boyfriend Ryan (Edmund Donovan).—
Alison Willmore,
Vulture,
12 June 2025
-
By associating vibes with AI, doing so is an outrageous and shifty means of subliminally implying that AI is mysterious, perhaps bordering on possessing sentience.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
5 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Furtive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/furtive. Accessed 20 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share