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
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Examples
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GERAGOS: The problem is what we call stealth jurors, jurors who lie to get on the jury because it's high profile, because they've got --
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In cases as Danny had, in cases like that, where they are lengthy cases and there's pretrial publicity and ongoing publicity, it's virtually impossible to ferret out what I call stealth jurors.
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CROAL: Well, the way the standard things in the game use buttons and things like that, but when you get in a position behind your opponent that's when you can carry out what they call the stealth kills or executions.
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Russia disparaged what it called a stealth attempt to bring about regime change.
NYT > Home Page By NEIL MacFARQUHAR 2011
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Entrepreneurs will say that they are operating in "stealth mode."
Wisdom from Ben Casnocha, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
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When he commented that he'd never heard of Omniture I told him we were in stealth marketing mode.
Get Briefed: Josh James Alexandra Zendrian 2010
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In Under the Radar, I had harsh things to say about start-ups that operate in "stealth mode."
Energy Diversification, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
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In Palo Alto, Calif., a nanotech startup that's still in stealth mode rents time remotely over the Internet for experiments using sophisticated electron microscopes -- devices it could never have afforded before.
Learning From The Cloud John Hagel III 2010
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If you are in "stealth mode," then I suggest that you do the following:
Wisdom from Ben Casnocha, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
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Your experience with losers saying they are in stealth mode shouldn't bias you against the entire concept.
Wisdom from Ben Casnocha, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
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That’s made it the quintessential “quiet luxury” or “stealth wealth” brand, allowing rich people — from a tradition of Goldman Sachs executives to Bill Gates — to look nice without broadcasting that they spent several months of your rent on their outfit.
How Loro Piana Became Silicon Valley’s Favorite Flex Jen Wieczner 2023
grassdog commented on the word stealth
Great word. Horrible film.
January 11, 2007
sonofgroucho commented on the word stealth
Is this the film you mean?
January 11, 2007
grassdog commented on the word stealth
Yep.
January 19, 2007
lampbane commented on the word stealth
"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