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
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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
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of furtive
The visual language is nimble, sometimes furtive and obscuring, and then classical and dramatic, recalling the photography of Robert Frank or Roy DeCarava.
—
Doreen St. Félix, New Yorker, 14 June 2025
These kind furtive exchanges litter A Pale View of Hills, Kei Ishikawa’s overly careful adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s debut novel of the same name.
—Lovia Gyarkye, HollywoodReporter, 18 May 2025
In this setting, the episode shifts between covert conversations, furtive looks, confrontations behind doors, and everything in between.
—Proma Khosla, IndieWire, 9 Apr. 2025
Asked by the newspaper’s lawyers to explain how the furtive system worked, Mr. Frankel typed up a 14-page memo.
—David W. Dunlap, New York Times, 13 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for furtive
Doreen St. Félix, New Yorker, 14 June 2025
These kind furtive exchanges litter A Pale View of Hills, Kei Ishikawa’s overly careful adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s debut novel of the same name.
—Lovia Gyarkye, HollywoodReporter, 18 May 2025
In this setting, the episode shifts between covert conversations, furtive looks, confrontations behind doors, and everything in between.
—Proma Khosla, IndieWire, 9 Apr. 2025
Asked by the newspaper’s lawyers to explain how the furtive system worked, Mr. Frankel typed up a 14-page memo.
—David W. Dunlap, New York Times, 13 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for furtive
Recent Examples of Synonyms for furtive
Adjective
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One of them is Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), a shady pharmaceuticals bigwig who wants to develop the world’s most effective heart medication using dinosaur blood samples.—
Tom Gliatto,
People.com,
30 June 2025
-
Old-school bedding impatiens will bloom continuously in a shady spot.—
Brandee Gruener,
Southern Living,
29 June 2025
Adjective
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American veterans and others have traveled to smaller, clandestine clinics for treatment to deal with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction.—
Eduardo Cuevas,
USA Today,
29 June 2025
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Gi-hun, who’d found his way back in the clandestine gaming complex (situated inside a mountain on a remote island), is Player 456 again among a new round of contestants.—
Lorraine Ali,
Los Angeles Times,
28 June 2025
Adjective
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Demonstrating a talent for working in fluent french peppered with a british accent, the actor delivers one of his most indelible acting turns as the sly, wry, and wise business mogul-turned- butler who finds new purpose in life working on the other side of the fence.—
Pete Hammond,
Deadline,
3 July 2025
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The sly twist from humility to confidence — all delivered with a not self-aware nonchalant shrug to the crowd — drives home how much more powerful the song is, in every case, than its writer or performer.—
Marcus K. Dowling,
The Tennessean,
2 July 2025
Adjective
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Such sadness is the stealthy undercurrent of Lunch Dances.—
Brian Schaefer
July 7,
Literary Hub,
7 July 2025
-
Israel doesn’t have any heavy bombers, stealthy or otherwise, capable of carrying such gigantic bombs.—
Paul Iddon,
Forbes.com,
4 July 2025
Adjective
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Now, after Operation Midnight Hammer, arguably one of the most perfect covert military operations in U.S. history, who could argue? Even Trump’s most ardent critics had to give him credit.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
28 June 2025
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This deliberately allusive narrative style enables the author to elude the topic of Nazism—or at least to hint at it in a covert way, thus making the novel acceptable to a wide German audience at the time of its publication in 1968.—
Ombline Damy,
JSTOR Daily,
26 June 2025
Adjective
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Another sneaky one to watch is starting center Connor McGovern, who is also a free agent after the season.—
The Athletic NFL Staff,
New York Times,
8 July 2025
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And since his value has been diminished by the fact a logjam at forward made everyone forget about him, a team could nab this sneaky contributor for not too much more than the veteran minimum.—
Mat Issa,
Forbes.com,
11 June 2025
Adjective
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Conan Edogawa and Detective Kogoro Mouri join the Nagano prefectural police to investigate a break-in at the observatory while uncovering a deeper plot involving undercover agents, betrayal, and vengeance.—
Naman Ramachandran,
Variety,
30 June 2025
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On June 24, undercover agents attempted to purchase fireworks from Pan.—
Roni Jacobson,
New York Daily News,
30 June 2025
Adjective
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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
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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://x0upouf933.proxynodejs.usequeue.com/thesaurus/furtive. Accessed 13 Jul. 2025.
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