surrepˈtitiously, adv.
[f. surreptitious a.1 + -ly2.]
In a surreptitious manner. a. By ‘surreption’: see surreptitious a.1 1.
| 1587–8 Reg. Privy Council Scot. IV. 260 [Having been] previlie and surreptitiouslie [obtained]. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. ii. §25 The reasons..were falsely, and surreptitiously suggested to his Holiness. 1689 Col. Rec. Pennsylv. I. 258 Certain decrees and Orders surreptitiously obtained by Thomas Wollaston. 1823 Lingard Hist. Eng. VI. 179 The dispensation..was said..to have been surreptitiously obtained. 1876 Bancroft Hist. U.S. I. x. 323 All charters and patents which had been surreptitiously obtained. |
b. In an underhand way; secretly and without authority; clandestinely, by stealth, ‘on the sly’.
| 1643 Sir T. Browne (title) A true and full coppy of that which was most imperfectly and Surreptitiously printed before vnder the name of Religio Medici. 1648 D. Jenkins Wks. 45 Which confutes their saying that the King got the Seale away surreptitiously. 1656 Cowley Misc. Pref., Either surreptitiously before, or avowedly after my death. 1710 Steele & Addison Tatler No. 259 ¶1 Surreptitiously taking away the Hassock from under Lady Grave-Airs. 1865 Athenæum 28 June 124/2 James Duke begins the world as an anonymous infant, laid surreptitiously in a basket of clean linen. 1871 Smiles Charac. x. (1876) 272 She carried it to church..in the guise of a missal, and read it surreptitiously during the service. 1879 Froude Cæsar viii. 87 The proscription was over, and the list had been closed; but Roscius's name was surreptitiously entered upon it. 1898 ‘H. S. Merriman’ Roden's Corner xvi. 174 She surreptitiously touched the animal with her heel. |
† c. Spuriously. Obs.
| 1680 Lond. Gaz. No. 1556/4 That the Book..is falsly, and surreptitiously Ascrib'd to that worthy Person. |
So surrepˈtitiousness.
| 1902 ‘H. S. Merriman’ Vultures xxix. 258 The quietness of the streets had a suggestion of surreptitiousness. |