stealth
(ˈstɛlθ)
Forms: 3–4 stalðe, 4–6 stelthe, 4–7 stelth, 5 stalth, 6 stilth, 6– stealth.
[Early ME. stalðe, stelthe; the fluctuation of vowel points to an OE. *stǽlþ, f. OTeut. *stǣl- ablaut- var. of *stel-: see steal v. and -th1. Cf. ON. stulþ-r, Icel. stuld-r, theft, stouth, from the weak-grade of the same root.]
† 1. The action or practice of stealing or taking secretly and wrongfully; theft. Obs.
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 1767 Stalðe ic for-sake. 1357 Lay Folks Catech. T. 513 Als be sacrilege, or be symonie, Stalthe, falshede, or oker. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 346 With Covoitise yit I finde A Servant of the same kinde, Which Stelthe is hote. c 1412 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 1809 And stelthes [printed steltles] guerdon is swich paiëment, Þat neuer thynke I his wages disserue. 1563 Homilies II. Rogat. Wk. ii. 240 The man in his nede, woulde not relieue his want by stealth. 1599 R. Greenham Short Form Catech. 416 Thou shalt not steale. How many euils are herein forbidden? 1 First, all those outward acts are forbidden, whereby stealth is committed{ddd}all inward stealth of the heart is forbidden. 1607 Shakes. Timon iii. iv. 27. 1608 Willet Hexapla Exod. 407 The stealing of men..that kind of stealth. 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 163 Safeguarded from sand and stealth, by a defensive wall. 1639 Act in Arch. Maryland (1883) I. 71 Stealth of ones self which is the unlawfull departure of a Servant out of service or out of the Colony. 1693 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) III. 159 This day was published their majesties proclamation for the preventing of the stealth and imbezilment of their majesties stores of war. 1781 Cowper Expost. 371 A despot big with pow'r obtain'd by wealth, And that obtain'd by rapine and by stealth. |
¶ Contrasted with force or violence. Obs.
| 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxvii. 157 If..he take the food by force, or stealth, which he cannot obtaine for mony, [etc.]. 1779 Johnson L.P., Pope Wks. 1787 IV. 16 Lord Petre cut off a lock of Mrs. Arabella Fermor's hair. This, whether stealth or violence, was so much resented [etc.]. |
† b. An instance of stealing; a theft. Obs.
| 1402 Hoccleve Lett. Cupid 362 And thus was mannes helthe beraft him by the fende ryght in a stelthe. 1444 Rolls of Parlt. V. 107/1 No such stelthe nor felony was comitted. a 1550 Vox Populi Vox Dei iii. in Skelton's Wks. (1843) II. 403 Vnto a comonwealthe This ys a very stealthe. 1596 Spenser State Irel. Wks. (Globe) 620/1 A stealth being made by a rebell,..the stollen goodes are convayed to some husbandman. 1613 T. Campion Relat. Ld. Knowles' Entert. C 3, [Prometheus] These heau'n borne Starres, Who by my stealth are become Sublunars. 1648 Art. Peace Irel. xxxii. in Milton's Wks. (1851) IV. 540 To hear and determin all Murders, Manslaughters, Rapes, Stealths,..and other Offences. 1694 Lond. Gaz. No. 3038/3 Whereas Dermot Leary, and divers others.., have..committed several Murders, Burglaries, Robberies, and Stealths. 1701 Sedley Ant. & Cl. iv. iv, Lovers, like misers, cannot bear the stealth Of the least trifle from their endless wealth. a 1704 T. Brown Sat. on Quack Wks. 1730 I. 63 I'th' face of day, thou robb'st us of our health, And yet art never question'd for the stealth. 1797 Sheridan Pizarro ii. i, A mother's love for her sweet babe is not a stealth from the dear father's store. |
† c. Plagiarism Obs.
| a 1568 R. Ascham Scholem. ii. (Arb.) 122 For the matter, it is whole Aristotles..both Catulus and Crassus do oft and pleasantly lay that stelth to Antonius charge. 1627 Hakewill Apol. (1630) 29 One collected his [Virgil's] faults, another his stealths, as Donatus in his life hath observed. 1637 Suckling Acc. Relig. Fragm. Aurea (1648) 107 For all before were but little stealths from Moses works. 1653 Milton Hirelings Wks. 1851 V. 367 The unskilful and immethodical teaching of thir Pastor, teaching..at random..as his ease or fansie, and oft-times as his stealth guides him. |
† d. Cunning thievishness. Obs.
| 1605 Shakes. Lear iii. iv. 96 Hog in sloth, Foxe in stealth, Wolfe in greedinesse. |
† 2. Something stolen; something to steal; plunder. Obs.
| 1426 Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 13252 Forth with hym hys stelthe he bar. 1560 T. Phaer æneid ix. (1562) C iiij, Aye watching lyke some Wolfe, y{supt}..about mens deiries houling trotts at midnight seking stealth. 1596 Spenser State Irel. Wks. (Globe) 620/1 By which meanes the theeves are greatly encouraged to steale, and theyr mayntayners emboldened to receave theyr stealths. 1617 Moryson Itin. ii. 9 That none of the Countrey receive any stelths from Neighbour-Countreys. 1634 Milton Comus 503, I came not here..to pursue the stealth Of pilfering Woolf. 1638 Mayne Lucian (1664) 344 Next morning he was apprehended with his stealths about him. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. vii. 419 More were concealed by parties not detectable, so cunningly they carried their stealths. |
| fig. 1567 Painter Pal. Pleas. II. 407 Ye I say, that pursue the secrete stelths of loue. |
† 3. The action of stealing or going furtively into or out of a place; the action of stealing or gliding along unperceived. Obs.
| 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. iii. ii. 310, I told him of your stealth vnto this wood. c 1600 ― Sonn. lxxvii, Thou by thy dyals shady stealth maist know, Times theeuish progress to eternitie. 1601 ― Twel. N. i. v. 316 Methinkes I feele this youths perfections With an inuisible, and subtle stealth To creepe in at mine eyes. 1614 Ralegh Hist. World ii. xxviii. §6. 650 By this secret subterrane vault Zedechias making his stealth, recouered..the plaines or deserts of Iericho. 1638 Junius Paint. Ancients 281 A quiet and insensible induction, deceiving the eye with a strange stealth of change. 1788 T. Warton On H.M. Birth-day 51 And many a fane he rear'd, that still sublime In massy pomp has mock'd the stealth of time. |
† b. A stealing or coming by surprise upon a person. Obs.
| 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xii. (1623) 698 Skulking surprises and vnder-hand stealthes. 1614 Ralegh Hist. World i. viii. §13. 166 So doe I thinke, that neither the Sabæi on the Red Sea, nor those toward the Persian Sea, could by any meanes execute the stealth vpon Job. |
† 4. Furtive or underhand action, an act accomplished by eluding observation or discovery. Obs.
| 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 4057 Vor hii ne mowe noȝt segge þat wiþ treson oþer stalþe it were ydo. 1603 Shakes. Meas. for M. i. ii. 158 The stealth of our most mutuall entertainment With Character too grosse, is writ on Iuliet. 1605 ― Lear i. ii. 11 Base, Base? Who in the lustie stealth of Nature, take More composition, and fierce qualitie, Then [etc.]. 1615 Daniel Hymen's Tri. i. i, And hence it grew that gaue us both our fears, That made our Meeting Stealth, our Parting Tears. 1621 G. Sandys Ovid's Met. i. (1626) 16 Iuno..For her mist Husband searcheth Heauen: as one, To whom his stealths so often had beene knowne. 1668 P. M. Charleton's Ephes. & Cimm Matrons ii. 23 No eye can..be able to trace them in their amorous stealths. 1797 Coleridge Christabel i. 120 But we will move as if in stealth. |
5. by stealth. † a. With reference to taking or appropriating: By an act of theft; secretly and without right or permission. Also, in wider sense, with reference to wrongful or forbidden acts generally. Obs. b. In modern use, the phrase has ordinarily no conscious association with steal vb. or sense 1 of the n., and has the neutral sense: Secretly, clandestinely.
| 1390 Gower Conf. I. 63 [He] hath his pourpos ofte achieved..of worldes welthe, And takth it, as who seith, be stelthe. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xviii. lv. (1495) 814 The dranes..vneth they ben suffryd to ete of ony, but as moche as they ete it is by stelthe. 1454 Rolls of Parlt. V. 274/2 Grete habundaunce of Wolles as welle by staltn as by licence is uttred into the parties beyond the See. 1480 Cov. Leet Bk. (1908) 459 [They] ffysshen be nyght & day the seid pole..be staith. c 1530 Crt. of Love 1362 And who come late he pressed in by stelth. 1592 Arden of Feversham i. 138 And, Mosbie, thou that comes to me by stelth, Shalt [etc.]. 1611 Bible 2 Sam. xix. 3 The people gate them by stealth that day into the citie, as people beeing ashamed steale away when they flee in battell. 1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 134 The English bring into France..sheep skinnes, and by stealth other Hides, forbidden to be exported. 1697 Dryden Virg., Georg. iv. 352 Lurking Lizards often lodge, by Stealth, Within the Suburbs, and purloin their Wealth. 1738 Pope Epil. Sat. i. 136 Let humble Allen..Do good by stealth, and blush to find it Fame. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) V. 261 He had been privately engaged to draw by stealth the portrait of old Mr. Thomas Baker. 1775 Harris Philos. Arrangem. Wks. (1841) 248 Marcus Antoninus.. still persisted in..committing his thoughts to writing, during moments gained by stealth from the hurry of courts and campaigns. 1784 Cowper Task vi. 995 So life glides smoothly and by stealth away. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. vii. II. 220 Congregations which had hitherto met only by stealth and in darkness. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 135 He did enter by stealth into the common workshop of Athene and Hephaestus. |
6. Comb. (nonce-words) as stealth-like adj., stealth-wise adv., stealth-won adj.
| 1800 Coleridge Death Wallenstein i. xii, What import these silent nods and gestures Which stealthwise thou exchangest with her? 1807 Wordsw. White Doe vii. 1650 A little while it stayed;..And then advanced with stealth⁓like pace. 1893 F. Thompson Poems 3 As lovers, banished from their lady's face,..Fondly adore Some stealth-won cast attire she wore, A kerchief, or a glove. |
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[4.] a. Delete † Obs. (Later examples.)
Outside the phrase by stealth (sense 5 below) this sense appears to have been very rare during the 19th c.
| a 1886 E. Dickinson Poems (1955) III. 1129 Each one of us has tasted With ecstasies of stealth The very food debated To our specific strength. 1938 L. Hughes New Song 11 The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies. 1943 [see unlived ppl. a.2 b]. 1964 I. Fleming You only live Twice x. 126 Ninjutsu..the art of stealth or invisibility. 1969 Maclean's Mag. Aug. 1/3 The qualities that make business click—qualities such as moxie and timing and stealth. 1987 G. Tindall To City i. 2 He had begun keeping his Notebook..in stealth and anxiety as if it represented some private, slightly shameful vice. |
b. Ellipt. for stealth technology, stealth bomber, etc.: see sense *6 b below.
| 1979 Aviation Week & Space Technol. 29 Jan. 121/2 Stealth cannot be overemphasized... Those technologies are really not here today. 1988 Sun (Brisbane) 21 Apr. 9/2 The Stealth, known as the B-2 bomber. |
[6.] b. attrib. Designating or connected with a branch of technology concerned with rendering aircraft hard to detect by radar, or an aircraft designed in accordance with this.
| [1975 Aviation Week & Space Technol. 23 June 9/2 Advanced Research Projects Agency has funded studies on high-stealth aircraft through USAF Aeronautical Systems Div.] 1979 Ibid. 29 Jan. 121/2 Key technologies that have been identified are the following: Stealth technology. Engines and fuels. Avionics. 1981 New Scientist 8 Oct. 86/3 In the air the US will go ahead with the B1 bomber and will develop the ‘Stealth’ bomber, an aircraft that will employ as yet unperfected technology to make itself invisible to enemy radar. 1987 Internat. Combat Arms Sept. 30/1 What Stealth designers seek to do is lower an aircraft's RCS, or radar cross section—that is, the measure of its visibility to radar. 1989 New Scientist 20 May 34/2 One possible application for the cloth, says Kuhn, is for ‘Stealth’ aircraft. |
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▸ stealth tax n. a tax levied in such a way that is it not noticed, or is not recognized as a tax.
| 1988 Financial Post (Toronto) 26 Aug. i. 12/1 The habitual resort of debtor governments through history to the *stealth tax of inflation. 2002 Country May–June 71/1 A succession of ‘stealth taxes’, which actually saw most individuals' tax burden increase over the course of the past parliament. |