English Explanatory Dictionary

cloak-and-dagger

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Marked by menacing furtive secrecy, often with a melodramatic tint or espionage involved.

Word forms

cloak-and-dagger

Etymology

Calque of French de cape et d'épée (“of the cloak and the sword”); first attested 1840. The French term referred to a genre of drama in which the main characters wore cloaks and had swords. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow used the “cloak and sword” term in 1840, whereas Charles Dickens preferred “cloak and dagger” a year later.

Synonyms

covert clandestine undercover abstruse behind the scenes catlike backroom stealth cloak-and-dagger concealed confidential deep-laid dern disguised furtive huggermugger hush-hush inconspicuous incognito low profile lurksome lurky mousy obfuscated off-the-books on the down-low on the sly secret secretive slinky sly sneaky stealthy sub rosa surreptitious under-the-table under the radar under wraps underground unperceived

Related words

cloak-and-sworder

Derived words

cloak-and-daggery
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