furtive

UK/ˈfɜːtɪv/US/ˈfɝtɪv/

adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #11,837 of 15,258neutral

Furtive means done quietly and secretly, as if guilty. A furtive glance.

The guilt is the point, since something merely quiet is not furtive. A furtive movement is what a witness remembers when they can remember nothing else.

Definitions of furtive

1adjectivefurtiveDone quietly and secretly, as if guilty.C1
“The furtive look at the door gave him away.”

furtive is a quality.

Where it comes from

Latin fūrtīvus, stolen, from fūr, a thief. A furtive glance is a look taken without permission.

Proto-Indo-European
*bʰer- — to bear, carry
Latin
fūrtīvus — clandestine, furtive, secret; concealed, hidden; stolen
Middle French
furtif
Middle English
*furtyve
English, today
furtive

Built from

furtive · Middle French — furtive, stealthy
fūrtum · Latin — theft; robbery
fūr · Latin — thief

From Middle English furtyve (implied in furtyvely), from Middle French furtif, furtive (“furtive, stealthy”) (modern French furtif), from Latin fūrtīvus (“clandestine, furtive, secret; concealed, hidden; stolen”), from fūrtum (“theft; robbery”) (from fūr (“thief”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European bʰer- (“to bear, carry”)) + -īvus.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 17 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

furtive in the wild

Stating that, or asking if, someone is a friend of Dorothy is a furtive way of suggesting sexual orientation while avoiding hostility.
Friend of Dorothy
The antpittas, a Neotropical bird family of some 50 species, resemble the pittas in their hopping gait, furtive behaviour, long legs and short tails.
Pitta (genus)
"Una furtiva lagrima" (A furtive tear) is the romanza from act 2, scene 8 of the Italian opera L'elisir d'amore by Gaetano Donizetti.
Una furtiva lagrima
The furtive tuco-tuco (Ctenomys occultus) is a species of rodent in the family Ctenomyidae.
Furtive tuco-tuco
The furtive fallacy is an informal fallacy of emphasis in which historical outcomes are asserted to be the result of hidden (furtive) misconduct or wrongdoing by decision makers.
Furtive fallacy

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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