different between secret vs shifty

English

Etymology

From Middle English secrette, from Old French secret, from Latin s?cr?tus (“separated, hidden”), from ptp of s?cern? (“separate, to set aside, sunder out”), from Latin cern?, from Proto-Indo-European *krey- . Displaced Old English d?agol (“secret”) and d?agolnes (“a secret”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?si?k??t/
• (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /?si?k??t/
• (obsolete) IPA^(key): /?si?k??t/
• Hyphenation: se?cret

Noun

secret (countable and uncountable, plural secrets)

1. (countable) A piece of knowledge that is hidden and intended to be kept hidden. [from late 14th c.]
   • May 1 , 1750, Samuel Johnson, The Rambler No. 13

     To tell our own secrets is generally folly, but that folly is without guilt; to communicate those with which we are intrusted is always treachery
2. The key or principle by which something is made clear; the knack.

   The secret to a long-lasting marriage is compromise.

3. Something not understood or known.
4. (uncountable) Private seclusion.

5. (archaic, in the plural) The genital organs.
6. (historical) A form of steel skullcap.
7. (Christianity, often in the plural) Any prayer spoken inaudibly and not aloud; especially, one of the prayers in the Mass, immediately following the "orate, fratres", said inaudibly by the celebrant.

Synonyms

• dern

Derived terms

Descendants

• Pitcairn-Norfolk: siikret
• ? Cebuano: sekret

Translations

Adjective

secret (comparative more secret, superlative most secret)

1. Being or kept hidden. [from late 14th c.]
2. (obsolete) Withdrawn from general intercourse or notice; in retirement or secrecy; secluded.
   • 1716, Elijah Fenton, an ode to the Right Honourable John Lord Gower

     secret in her sapphire cell
3. (obsolete) Faithful to a secret; not inclined to divulge or betray confidence; secretive, separate, apart.
4. (obsolete) Separate; distinct.
   • 1678, Ralph Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe

     They suppose two other divine hypostases superior thereunto, which were perfectly secret from matter.

Alternative forms

• secrette (obsolete)

Synonyms

• see Thesaurus:hidden and Thesaurus:covert

Antonyms

• overt

Derived terms

Related terms

• secrete
• secretion

Translations

Verb

secret (third-person singular simple present secrets, present participle (UK) secretting or (US) secreting, simple past and past participle (UK) secretted or (US) secreted)

1. (transitive) To make or keep secret. [from late 16th c.]
   • 1984, Peter Scott Lawrence, Around the mulberry tree, Firefly Books, p. 26

     [...] she would unfold the silk, press it with a smooth wooden block that she'd heated in the oven, and then once more secret it away.

   • 1986, InfoWorld, InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.

     Diskless workstations [...] make it difficult for individuals to copy information [...] onto a diskette and secret it away.

   • 1994, Phyllis Granoff & Koichi Shinohara, Monks and magicians: religious biographies in Asia, Mosaic Press, p. 50

     To prevent the elixir from reaching mankind and thereby upsetting the balance of the universe, two gods secret it away.

2. (transitive) To hide secretly.

   He was so scared for his safety he secreted arms around the house.

Usage notes

• All other dictionaries label this sense 'obsolete', but the citations above and on the citations page demonstrate recent usage as part of the idiom "secret [something] away".
• The present participle and past forms secreting and secreted are liable to confusion with the corresponding heteronymous forms of the similar verb secrete.

Quotations

• For more quotations using this term, see Citations:secret.

Derived terms

• secrete

References

• “†?secret, v.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2^nd Ed.; 1989]
  Tagged as obsolete. Notes: “In the inflected forms it is not easy to distinguish between ?secret and secrete v.”
• “Se"cret (?), v. t.” listed on page 1,301 of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
  Se"cret (?), v. t. To keep secret. [Obs.] Bacon.

Anagrams

• Cretes, certes, erects, resect, terces

Catalan

Etymology

From Latin secretus.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic) IPA^(key): /s??k??t/
• (Central) IPA^(key): /s??k??t/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /se?k?et/

Adjective

secret (feminine secreta, masculine plural secrets, feminine plural secretes)

1. secret

Derived terms

• secretament
• secretisme

Noun

secret m (plural secrets)

1. secret

Derived terms

• en secret

Further reading

• “secret” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “secret” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “secret” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “secret” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s?.k??/, (dated) /s?.???/

Etymology 1

From Middle French secret, from Old French secret, borrowed from Latin secr?tus.

Adjective

secret (feminine singular secrète, masculine plural secrets, feminine plural secrètes)

1. secret

Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Old French secret, borrowed from Latin secr?tum.

Noun

secret m (plural secrets)

1. secret

Derived terms

• mettre au secret
• ne plus avoir de secret
• secret d'alcôve
• secret d'État
• secret de Polichinelle
• secret industriel

Descendants

• ? Romanian: secret

Anagrams

• certes, crêtes, terces

Further reading

• “secret” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French secret.

Adjective

secret m (feminine singular secrete, masculine plural secrets, feminine plural secretes)

1. secret

Descendants

• French: secret
  • ? Romanian: secret

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French secret, Latin secretum, secretus. Doublet of s?cret, which was inherited.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /se?kret/

Noun

secret n (plural secrete)

1. secret

Declension

Synonyms

• tain?

Adjective

secret m or n (feminine singular secret?, masculine plural secre?i, feminine and neuter plural secrete)

1. secret, hidden

Declension

Synonyms

• tainic, ascuns

Related terms

• s?cret

English

Etymology

shift +? -y

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???fti/

Adjective

shifty (comparative shiftier, superlative shiftiest)

1. Subject to frequent changes in direction.
   • 1929, Henry Handel Richardson, Ultima Thule, New York: Norton, Part 2, Chapter 3, p. 145,^[2]

     Off he raced, shuffling his bare feet through the hot, dry, shifty sand.

   • 2002, Guy Vanderhaeghe, The Last Crossing, New York: Grove, Chapter 17, p. 190,^[3]

     The Kelsos crowding their horses up against the wagon, bumping it, making things shake inside: everything going shifty, unsteady.

2. (of a person's eyes) Moving from one object to another, not looking directly and steadily at the person with whom one is speaking.
   • 1886, George Manville Fenn, This Man’s Wife, Chapter 3, in Littel’s Living Age, Volume 168, No. 2178, 20 March, 1886, p. 761,^[4]

     […] his quick, shifty eyes turned from the manager to the lethal weapons over the chimney, then to the safe, then to the bank, and Mr. Thickens’s back.

   • 1914, G. K. Chesterton, “The Head of Cæsar” in The Wisdom of Father Brown, London: Cassell, 1928, p. 149,^[5]

     His tinted glasses were not really opaque, but of a blue kind common enough, nor were the eyes behind them shifty, but regarded me steadily.

   • 1993, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, Boston: Little, Brown, Chapter 1.4, p. 10,^[6]

     He was thin, unsure of himself, sweet-natured and shifty-eyed; and he was Lata’s favourite.

3. Having the appearance of being dishonest, criminal or unreliable.

   He was a shifty character in a seedy bar, and I checked my wallet was still there after talking to him.

   • 1999, J. M. Coetzee, Disgrace, New York: Viking, Chapter 23, p. 208,^[7]

     ‘I don’t trust him,’ he goes on. ‘He is shifty. He is like a jackal sniffing around, looking for mischief. […] ’

4. Resourceful; full of, or ready with, shifts or expedients.
   • 1857, Charles Kingsley, Two Years Ago, Cambridge: Macmillan, Volume 1, Chapter 1, p. 34,^[8]

     Shifty and thrifty as old Greek or modern Scot, there were few things he could not invent, and perhaps nothing he could not endure.

Derived terms

• shiftily
• shiftiness
• shifty-eyed

Translations

References