COVERT
Dictionary entry overview: What does covert mean?
• COVERT (noun)
The noun COVERT has 2 senses:
1. a flock of coots
2. a covering that serves to conceal or shelter something
Familiarity information: COVERT used as a noun is rare.
• COVERT (adjective)
The adjective COVERT has 2 senses:
1. secret or hidden; not openly practiced or engaged in or shown or avowed
2. (of a wife) being under the protection of her husband
Familiarity information: COVERT used as an adjective is rare.
Dictionary entry details
• COVERT (noun)
Meaning:
A flock of coots
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("covert" is a kind of...):
flock (a group of birds)
Meronyms (members of "covert"):
coot (slate-black slow-flying birds somewhat resembling ducks)
Meaning:
A covering that serves to conceal or shelter something
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Synonyms:
cover; concealment; covert; screen
Context examples:
they crouched behind the screen / under cover of darkness
Hypernyms ("covert" is a kind of...):
covering (an artifact that covers something else (usually to protect or shelter or conceal it))
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "covert"):
blind (a hiding place sometimes used by hunters (especially duck hunters))
camouflage (device or stratagem for concealment or deceit)
shoji (a translucent screen made of a wooden frame covered with rice paper)
stalking-horse (screen consisting of a figure of a horse behind which a hunter hides while stalking game)
• COVERT (adjective)
Meaning:
Secret or hidden; not openly practiced or engaged in or shown or avowed
Context examples:
covert actions by the CIA / covert funding for the rebels
Similar:
undisclosed; unrevealed (not made known)
under wraps (kept secret)
subterranean; subterraneous; ulterior (lying beyond what is openly revealed or avowed (especially being kept in the background or deliberately concealed))
behind-the-scenes; sub-rosa; under-the-table (designed and carried out secretly or confidentially)
secret (communicated covertly)
cloaked; disguised; masked (having its true character concealed with the intent of misleading)
collusive; conniving (acting together in secret toward a fraudulent or illegal end)
secret (indulging only covertly)
clandestine; cloak-and-dagger; hole-and-corner; hugger-mugger; hush-hush; secret; surreptitious; undercover; underground (conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods)
black ((of intelligence operations) deliberately misleading)
backstair; backstairs; furtive (secret and sly or sordid)
Also:
invisible; unseeable (impossible or nearly impossible to see; imperceptible by the eye)
concealed (hidden on any grounds for any motive)
implicit; inexplicit (implied though not directly expressed; inherent in the nature of something)
Antonym:
overt (open and observable; not secret or hidden)
Meaning:
(of a wife) being under the protection of her husband
Context example:
a woman covert
Similar:
protected; secure (kept safe or defended from danger or injury or loss)
Domain category:
jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)
