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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
covert
I.adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
action
▪ This whole business of covert action.
▪ Thoughtful, well-reasoned covert action, lawfully reported to Congress, can be a tremendous foreign-policy instrument for a president.
▪ Though this derives from psychological studies of covert actions types, it would be waste to leave it at that.
▪ One wonders whether that overt gesture really was meant to stifle covert action.
▪ He was an enthusiast for covert action.
operation
▪ None of them had been trained in covert operations other than when dealing with criminals.
▪ He said in a 1994 interview that as prime minister he rejected a military plan to sell heroin to finance covert operations.
▪ Police shut down the new business, called Kim's, last week after a covert operation.
▪ Friday morning they organized a covert operation, modeled on many others over the years, to take control of Artis Hill.
▪ He says that the Gemini squad will be seen in uniform, but there are also more covert operations.
▪ Better to buy time with covert operations and the steady working of violence, crime and racketeering than to risk vote-endangering controversy.
▪ Miller never did find out how to set up a covert operation.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ A covert investigation was conducted to catch the drug-smuggling ring.
▪ The abuse of residents in the home was confirmed by covert video surveillance.
▪ The chief investigator resigned, amid allegations of covert and probably illegal operations.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Because of the substantial practical advantages, the bulk of this chapter will be devoted to covert sensitization.
▪ But the media are not Rasputin with a covert or overt political agenda.
▪ Controlled studies to date of the effectiveness of covert sensitization offer mixed results.
▪ In my own research, some covert use was made of a micro-recorder and tapes were later transcribed.
▪ Usually it is covert and can only be diagnosed by specifically measuring blood lipids.
II.noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He was helped by Athena to drive them out of their coverts, and as they flew up he shot them.
▪ Lack of red on under tail coverts distinguishes from all other black and white woodpeckers, except Three-toed.
▪ Like a miniature short-billed Water Rail, with unspotted underparts, barred under tail coverts and green bill.
▪ Plumage grey-brown, darker on underparts, with white under tail coverts.
▪ Red of juvenile, both on crown and under tail coverts, is rather pale.
▪ The only waterfowl with both red forehead and habit of constantly flirting white under tail coverts.
▪ White eyestripe and under tail coverts.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Covert

Covert \Cov"ert\ (k?v"?rt), a. [OF. covert, F. couvert, p. p. of couvrir. See Cover, v. t.]

  1. Covered over; private; hid; secret; disguised.

    How covert matters may be best disclosed.
    --Shak.

    Whether of open war or covert guile.
    --Milton

  2. Sheltered; not open or exposed; retired; protected; as, a covert nook. -- Wordsworth.

    Of either side the green, to plant a covert alley.
    --Bacon.

  3. (Law) Under cover, authority or protection; as, a feme covert, a married woman who is considered as being under the protection and control of her husband.

    Covert way, (Fort.) See Covered way, under Covered.

    Syn: Hidden; secret; private; covered; disguised; insidious; concealed. See Hidden.

Covert

Covert \Cov"ert\, n. [OF. See Covert, a.]

  1. A place that covers and protects; a shelter; a defense.

    A tabernacle . . . for a covert from storm.
    --Is. iv. 6.

    The highwayman has darted from his covered by the wayside.
    --Prescott.

  2. [Cf. F. couverte.] (Zo["o]l.) One of the special feathers covering the bases of the quills of the wings and tail of a bird. See Illust. of Bird.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
covert

c.1300, from Old French covert "hidden, obscure, underhanded," literally "covered," past participle of covrir "to cover" (see cover). Related: Covertly.

Wiktionary
covert

a. 1 (context now rare English) hidden, covered over; overgrown, sheltered. 2 (context figuratively English) secret, surreptitious, concealed. n. 1 Area of thick undergrowth where animals hide. 2 (lb en ornithology) A feather that covers others

WordNet
covert
  1. adj. secret or hidden; not openly practiced or engaged in or shown or avowed; "covert actions by the CIA"; "covert funding for the rebels" [ant: overt]

  2. of a wife; under the protection of her husband

covert
  1. n. a flock of coots

  2. a covering that serves to conceal or shelter something; "they crouched behind the screen"; "under cover of darkness" [syn: screen, cover, concealment]

Wikipedia
Covert (automobile)

B. V. Covert and Company was a manufacturer of automobiles in Lockport, New York, from 1901 to 1907. The company started as a manufacturer of steam-powered cars, but later switched to gas-powered vehicles. Some Coverts were exported to England as Covert-Jacksons.

Covert (disambiguation)

A covert usually describes events carried out in secrecy.

Covert may also refer to:

  • Covert (surname)
  • Covert (automobile), an automobile built in the United States of America from 1901-1907
  • Covert (feather), a type of feather
  • Covert (linguistics), a linguistic classification
  • Covert, a type of twill textile weave
Covert (linguistics)

In linguistics, a feature of a word or phrase is said to be covert if there is no surface evidence of its existence within that word or phrase. For example, many languages have covert grammatical gender in nouns, in that there is no way to tell from the form of a noun which gender it is; gender only becomes apparent in, for example, articles and adjectival agreement, which depend on gender. In German instruction, the article (die, der, das) is generally taught along with a noun, so that the student may remember which gender the noun is. In French, grammatical number is largely covert: the singular and plural forms of most nouns are identical in pronunciation. However, number is still relevant, as it affects articles and verbal agreement, so it is still logical to say that one instance of a noun is singular, and that another instance, pronounced identically, is plural.

A covert feature is different from a null morpheme, such as the English singular, which is marked by the absence of a morpheme that occurs elsewhere. That is, whereas in English the null-marked singular contrasts with an overt -s plural in most nouns, in French both singular and plural are null; in English it is clear that cat is singular, because it is not the plural cats, whereas in spoken French, it cannot be known whether chat(s) spoken in isolation is singular or plural.

Covert (surname)

Covert is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

  • Allen Covert (born 1964), American comedian
  • Eugene E. Covert, American scientist
  • Frank Manning Covert (1908-1987), Canadian lawyer
  • James W. Covert (1842-1910), American politician
  • Jim Covert (born 1960), former American football player
  • John Covert (painter) (1882 – 1960), American painter
  • John S. Covert (died 1881), Canadian ship builder and politician
  • Ralph Covert, American singer

Usage examples of "covert".

During the 1990s, tension sometimes arose, as it did in the effort against al Qaeda, between policymakers who wanted the CIA to undertake more aggressive covert action and wary CIA leaders who counseled prudence and making sure that the legal basis and presidential authorization for their actions were undeniably clear.

In reality, there was no such thing as an avenging blowfish, which made it a perfect name for a covert baseball team preparing for a game that might not exist.

Not that he had begun to condemn himself for his hardness to the woman who, whatever her fault, yet honored him by confessing it, or to bemoan her hard fate to whom a man had not been a hiding-place from the wind, a covert from the tempest of life, a shadow-shelter from the scorching of her own sin.

In the first two hours after their escape they had made good progress on the way to London, un pursued Every now and then, Deb had led into a covert and sat Cec down on a log or stone, and pushed herself through the thickest to observe the road and listen.

He fretted gloomily about all the next day, riding alone in the Park, driving with his sister, drinking and gambling at the club again and smiling cynically to himself at the covert glances his acquaintances exchanged.

If the King crossed Evenlode and entered the forest it would be by the bridge of Charlbury, for the best harbourage for deer lay to the west of Leafield in the thick coverts above Shipton.

His eyes widened in feigned surprise and he gave a not so covert glance at Letcher before looking at his partner.

The larch plantations would be a pale mist on the hillsides, the hazel coverts would be budding, plovers would be everywhere, and water ouzels would be flashing their white breasts among the stones.

Bryan demurely held the rein, and hardly hazarded a look or covert joke, as with a pace that put the poney to a trot, he led the Prince through the narrow streets to the western gate.

I felt quite diminutive and vulnerable under his gaze, rather as I imagine small forest creatures must have felt when, far from the safety of their dens and with no covert nearby in which to shelter, they realized they were being eyed by my raptorial juika-bloth.

An intelligence officer assigned to the Office of Management Analysis, he had met McCoy during a covert operation staged by Banning in China before the war.

While he looked around for another horse to steal, Merel hurried out of the covert carrying what looked like an axe-handle.

This was generally an eighteenth-century frame of mind, which was in part to disappear in the covert misogyny of later nineteenth-century writers.

From these clear coverts high and cool I see How every time with every time is knit, And each to all is mortised cunningly, And none is sole or whole, yet all are fit.

CIA must bring presidentially authorized covert action Findings and Memoranda of Notification to the Intelligence committees, and it must detail its failures.