Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act of moving, proceeding, or acting in a covert way.
  • noun The quality or characteristic of being furtive or covert.
  • noun Obsolete The act of stealing.
  • adjective Not disclosing one's true ideology, affiliations, or positions.
  • adjective Having or providing the ability to prevent detection by radar.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of stealing; theft.
  • noun A thing stolen.
  • noun A secret or clandestine method or proceeding; means secretly employed to gain an object; surreptitious way or manner: used in a good or a bad sense.
  • noun A secret going; a stolen or clandestine visit.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete The act of stealing; theft.
  • noun obsolete The thing stolen; stolen property.
  • noun The bringing to pass anything in a secret or concealed manner; a secret procedure; a clandestine practice or action; -- in either a good or a bad sense.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun uncountable the attribute or characteristic of acting in secrecy, or in such a way that the actions are unnoticed or difficult to detect by others.
  • noun archaic, countable an act of secrecy, especially one involving thievery

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun avoiding detection by moving carefully

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English stelth, probably from Old English *stǣlth.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • Great word. Horrible film.

    January 11, 2007

  • Is this the film you mean?

    January 11, 2007

  • Yep.

    January 19, 2007

  • "She flies under the radar for a swift and unexpected attack, and any adversary caught unaware will get a swift lesson in shock and awe. Immensely strong and cool under pressure, she executes her favorite move -- a quick counter-attack that you never see coming."

    (Official biography on the NBC American Gladiators website)

    September 6, 2008