| 释义 |
covertly, adv.|ˈkʌvətlɪ|
[f. covert a. + -ly2.]
In a covert manner.
†1. In a close covered manner; closely.
1430in Turner Dom. Archit. III. 39 So couertly euery thynge was couered. c1470Henry Wallace ii. 277 Rycht couertly thai kepe him in that caiff. 1585Queen Elizabeth in Four C. Eng. Lett. 29 That princes causes be vailed so couvertly that no intelligence may bewraye them.
2. In a concealed manner; secretly, privately.
c1400Rom. Rose 6113 He his lyf led covertly In Gile and in Ipocrisie. 1430Lydg. Chron. Troy iii. xxv, The tother eye can laugh couertly. c1530Ld. Berners Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814) 178 Commaunding them al to be..in..a certayn place, as couertly as they myght, wythout any noyse. 1653H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. xxvi. 97 Getting Information very covertly. 1789H. Walpole Remin. ii. 16 To make his addresses to her not covertly. 1874Motley Barneveld II. xxii. 420 Intimations were covertly made to him.
3. In a veiled or hidden manner; with the sense implied, not expressed; indirectly, by implication.
c1400Rom. Rose 19 Wightes That dremen..Ful many thinges covertly That fallen after al openly. c1450Merlin xix. 305 Whan Blase herde Merlin thus couertly speke. 1586W. Webbe Eng. Poetrie (Arb.) 53 Virgill hath a gallant report of Augustus couertly comprysed in the first æglogue. 1690T. Burnet Th. Earth iv. iv. 158 There are, covertly or expresly..glances upon the Millennium. 1783Ld. Hailes Antiq. Chr. Ch. v. 152 He treats of them, although covertly and in an indirect manner. 1824Mackintosh Icon Basiliké Wks. 1846 I. 512 In these two letters,—more covertly in the first, more openly in the second,—Gauden apprises Lord Clarendon, that [etc.]. |