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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
furtive
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a furtive glance (=a quick secret look)
▪ Della gave Chris a furtive glance.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
glance
▪ They cast furtive glances at one another.
▪ I was playing with her as usual and casting furtive glances at her six heavy gold bangles.
▪ He cast a furtive glance to left and to right.
▪ But it slowed her up considerably, and as time passed she found herself casting furtive glances over her shoulder.
▪ The man, having given another quick, furtive glance round, darted to the fence along the Botanical Gardens.
▪ Then he gave a furtive glance towards his companions before turning his back on them completely.
▪ He stole a furtive glance at Sweetheart.
▪ Down the empty street he hurried, with many a furtive glance to assure himself that he was not being followed.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ His movements were quick and furtive, and he spoke in a whisper.
▪ Miss Baggely appeared unconfident, almost furtive.
▪ She was having a furtive affair with a cameraman.
▪ The two girls exchanged furtive glances across the dinner table and tried hard not to giggle.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ At first she thought of wolves as she listened to the furtive movement in the woods to each side of the river.
▪ Going and having a few meals with him didn't seem evil or furtive in any way.
▪ Her face had become big and vacant, the eyes sluggishly furtive, the mouth vague.
▪ It had been perfectly camouflaged, with its ears pulled back and its white flanks hidden by a furtive crouch.
▪ The people look furtive, like drug addicts, as they take them out in stacks of four or five.
▪ There was nothing furtive in his attitude and he would have been quite unashamed if anyone had caught him.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Furtive

Furtive \Fur"tive\, a. [L. furtivus, fr. furtum theft, fr. fur thief, akin to ferre to bear: cf. F. furtif. See Fertile.] Stolen; obtained or characterized by stealth; sly; secret; stealthy; as, a furtive look.
--Prior.

A hasty and furtive ceremony.
--Hallam.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
furtive

16c., from Middle French furtif (16c.), from Latin furtivus "stolen," hence also "hidden, secret," from furtum "theft, robbery; a stolen thing," from fur (genitive furis) "a thief, extortioner," also a general term of abuse, "rascal, rogue," probably from PIE *bhor-, from root *bher- (1) "to carry" (see infer). Related: Furtiveness.\n

Wiktionary
furtive

a. 1 stealthy 2 Exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy.

WordNet
furtive
  1. adj. marked by quiet and caution and secrecy; taking pains to avoid being observed; "a furtive manner"; "a lurking prowler"; "a sneak attack"; "stealthy footsteps"; "a surreptitious glance at his watch"; "someone skulking in the shadows" [syn: lurking, skulking, sneak(a), sneaky, stealthy, surreptitious]

  2. secret and sly or sordid; "backstairs gossip"; "his low backstairs cunning"- A.L.Guerard; "backstairs intimacies"; "furtive behavior" [syn: backstair, backstairs]

Usage examples of "furtive".

He was well-known, at least by sight, to all night-living Baltimoreans, and to those who frequented race-track, gambling-house, and the furtive cockpits that now and then materialise for a few brief hours in the forty miles of country that lie between Baltimore and Washington.

In height he was short for a Belgic Gaul, sharp-featured of face, and oddly furtive in his manner.

The committeemen, Marvin felt, had lost all interest in him, for their glances at him were few and furtive.

The Jewess still danced upon the roof to the watching Zouaves, but now there was something mystic in her tiny movements which no longer roused in Domini any furtive desire not really inherent in her nature.

She saw them with her overeyes, glowing moon-on-dragon-scale silver, that peculiar sheen of pure metal with the overlay of draconic iridescence, a furtive rainbow that was all colors and none at all.

All he could see were short, faint, horizontal streaks of bluish light, but he could smell an overpowering foetor and hear a curious jumble of soft, furtive sounds above him.

Their furtive eyes raked the houses, but they did not pause in the long loping trot with which of a moonlight night they had often slunk through the Lochaber passes.

Secha, looking around with all the furtive nonsensicalness of a child playing at hide-and-seek.

Later still being frightened by a light footstep, furtive and sinister, until recalling that the crisp, not to say heavy step of officialdom would be more sinister.

Furtive groups clambered to their roofs and sang hymns to the Wingsister, praying for flight.

Mildewing old houses tottered overhead, their steeply slanting roofs like capes slung over narrow shoulders, making them furtive.

Rachel took a furtive step, then another, looking at something amid the broken, dropping-spattered branches of serviceberry, until, with a mournful sigh, she sank to her haunches, her head hanging.

The train was practically empty at this time of night, and Malachi was alone in the car except for six teenaged girls, who burst into fits of giggling interspersed with furtive looks in his direction.

Furtive movements betrayed the fact that some of the Unis were making their escape over the ridge.

Furtive and fascinated, her eyes remained fixed on Bianca, while her hand moved, mechanically ticking the paragraphs.