Find the word definition

Crossword clues for secretive

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
secretive
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
so
So why was the fortune-teller so secretive?
▪ At least one dancer was surprised to learn that Alvin had a brother, so secretive was he about his life.
▪ She is so secretive she won't even say what the initials stand for.
So why had he been so secretive?
very
▪ Nothing came out, but then she seems to have been very secretive.
▪ Were you concerned a very small, very secretive group with enough money can pose a security threat?
▪ But in our house, everything is very secretive.
▪ A very secretive boy, I think I mentioned that.
▪ East Coast drunks are very secretive.
▪ She lives in her own world and is very secretive.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Kath's very secretive about her past, isn't she?
▪ Much of the discussion focused upon North Korea's highly secretive nuclear program.
▪ North Korea is a secretive nation.
▪ Why did Stephen always have to be so secretive in his business dealings?
▪ Years of living alone had made her secretive and unwilling to trust anyone.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A very secretive boy, I think I mentioned that.
▪ At least one dancer was surprised to learn that Alvin had a brother, so secretive was he about his life.
▪ Falconer was quiet and secretive but seemed in very good humour, laughing and talking rather garrulously.
▪ His style as leader, distrustful and secretive, prompts regular comparisons to Richard Nixon.
▪ They sat there smiling a secretive smile.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Secretive

Secretive \Se*cret"ive\, a. Tending to secrete, or to keep secret or private; as, a secretive disposition.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
secretive

"inclined to secrecy," 1815 (implied in secretiveness); see secret (n.) + -ive. The word also was in Middle English with a sense "secret, hidden" (mid-15c.). Related: Secretively.

Wiktionary
secretive

a. Having an inclination to secrecy.

WordNet
secretive

adj. inclined to secrecy or reticence about divulging information; "although they knew her whereabouts her friends kept close about it" [syn: close, closelipped, closemouthed, tightlipped]

Usage examples of "secretive".

They are not only secretive, appropriative, selfish, and self-defensive, but when redundant are aggressive and tend to destructiveness, the gratification of animal indulgence, intemperance, and debauchery.

The only man she had ever wanted badly enough to have an affair with was acting like the secretive, manipulative matrix-talent that he was.

The stronger they are, the more secretive, devious, manipulative, and downright sneaky they get.

If the previous set of travelers had been as secretive as he was, the odds were even better than good that they came from the Metallurgical Laboratory.

The Shrouders were little better, secretive minds cocooned inside shells of restructured spacetime.

Unseen by these mortals, Guilo and Triskal came hurriedly up the hill on foot, secretive and unglorified but moving like the wind nevertheless.

Hers is an unregimented, dangerous and highly secretive life that may suit her personality, but it frustrates Scarpetta and frightens her.

And there was always a sly, secretive mirth that whispered in his voice.

Words whispered from a text in an alien script and language older than man, lifting from script to voice, soft and secretive.

Those few Mexicans or Anglos who knew anything at all about the secretive desert dwellers left them alone for much the same reason.

Kyrie Eleison that Janice began to sense the first vague stirrings of interest and curiosity in the air - the secretive glances, smirks, and whisperings flitted about them like straws in a high wind.

Subconsciously I suppose I had been expecting either an aged and jowly gentleman in the Hogarthian tradition or a refugee from a Bronte novel, talk, dark, brooding, and secretive.

Now these holidays appeared to me in a morbid light, and I felt secretive, shameful.

Bos Kashi were the representatives of the Shan, secretive, dark-skinned little men whose sharp facial angles contrasted with their slanted eyes.

By 1964 an extremely violent, secretive new Klan faction called the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan was eclipsing the United Klans in Mississippi, attracting a membership of two thousand.