N. concealment, hiding, occultation, mystification, seal of secrecy, screen, disguise, masquerade, masked battery, hiding place, cryptography, steganography, freemasonry, stealth, stealthiness, sneakiness, obreption|, slyness, latitancy, latitation, seclusion, privacy, secrecy, secretness, incognita, reticence, reserve, mental reserve, reservation, arriere pensee, suppression, evasion, white lie, misprision, silence, suppression of truth, underhand dealing, closeness, secretiveness, mystery, latency, snake in the grass, secret, stowaway

V. conceal, hide, secrete, put out of sight, lock up, seal up, bottle up, encrypt, encode, cipher, cover, screen, cloak, veil, shroud, cover up one's tracks, screen from sight, screen from observation, drawing the veil, draw the curtain, close the curtain, curtain, shade, eclipse, throw a view over, becloud, bemask, mask, disguise, ensconce, muffle, smother, befog, whisper, keep from, keep back, keep to oneself, keep snug, keep close, keep secret, keep dark, bury, sink, suppress, keep from, keep from out of view, keep from out of sight, keep in the shade, throw into the shade, throw into background, stifle, hush up, smother, withhold, reserve, fence with a question, ignore, keep a secret, keep one's own counsel, hold one's tongue, make no sign, not let it go further, not breathe a word, not breathe a syllable about, not let the right hand know what the left is doing, hide one's light under a bushel, bury one's talent in a napkin, keep in the dark, leave in the dark, keep in the ignorance, blind, blind the eyes, blindfold, hoodwink, mystify, puzzle, bamboozle, be concealed, suffer an eclipse, retire from sight, couch, hide oneself, lie hid, lie in perdu, lie in close, lie in ambush (ambush) 530, seclude oneself, lurk, sneak, skulk, slink, prowl, steal into, steal out of, steal by, steal along, play at bopeep, play at hide and seek, hide in holes and corners, still hunt

Adj. concealed, hidden, secret, recondite, mystic, cabalistic, occult, dark, cryptic, cryptical, private, privy, in petto, auricular, clandestine, close, inviolate, tortuous, behind a screen, undercover, under an eclipse, in ambush, in hiding, in disguise, in a cloud, in a fog, in a mist, in a haze, in a dark corner, in the shade, in the dark, clouded, wrapped in clouds, wrapt in clouds, invisible, buried, underground, perdu, secluded, undisclosed, untold, covert, untraceable, mysterious, irrevealable, inviolable, confidential, esoteric, not to be spoken of, unmentionable, obreptitious, furtive, stealthy, feline, skulking, surreptitious, underhand, hole and corner, sly &c. (cunning), 702, secretive, evasive, reserved, reticent, uncommunicative, buttoned up, close, close as wax, taciturn

Adv. secretly, in secret, in private, in one's sleeve, in holes and corners, in the dark, januis clausis, with closed doors, a huis clos, hugger mugger, a la derobee, under the cloak of, under the rose, under the table, sub rosa, en tapinois, in the background, aside, on the sly, with bated breath, sotto voce, in a whisper, without beat of drum, a la sourdine, behind the veil, beyond mortal ken, beyond the grave, beyond the veil, hid from mortal vision, into the eternal secret, into the realms supersensible, into the supreme mystery, in confidence, in strict confidence, in strictest confidence, confidentially, between ourselves, between you and me, between you and me and the bedpost, entre nous, inter nos, under the seal of secrecy, a couvert, underhand, by stealth, like a thief in the night, stealthily, behind the scenes, behind the curtain, behind one's back, behind a screen, incognito, in camera

Phr. it must go no further, it will go no further, don't tell a soul, "tell it not in gath,"nobody the wiser, alitur vitium vivitque tegendo, "let it be tenable in your silence still", background information, deep background information, deep background, background session, backgrounder, not for attribution

N. abstention, abstinence, for bearance, refraining, inaction, neutrality, avoidance, evasion, elusion, seclusion, avolation|, flight, escape, retreat, recoil, departure, rejection, shirker, truant, fugitive, refugee, runaway, runagate, maroon

V. abstain, refrain, spare, not attempt, not do, maintain the even tenor of one's way, eschew, keep from, let alone, have nothing to do with, keep aloof keep off, stand aloof, stand off, hold aloof, hold off, take no part in, have no hand in, avoid, shun, steer clear of, keep clear of, fight shy of, keep one's distance, keep at a respectful distance, keep out of the way, get out of the way, evade, elude, turn away from, set one's face against, deny oneself, shrink back, hang back, hold back, draw back, recoil, retire, flinch, blink, blench, shy, shirk, dodge, parry, make way for, give place to, beat a retreat, turn tail, turn one's back, take to one's heels, runaway, run for one's life, cut and run, be off like a shot, fly, flee, fly away, flee away, run away from, take flight, take to flight, desert, elope, make off, scamper off, sneak off, shuffle off, sheer off, break away, tear oneself away, slip away, slink away, steel away, make away from, scamper away from, sneak away from, shuffle away from, sheer away from, slip cable, part company, turn one's heel, sneak out of, play truant, give one the go by, give leg bail, take french leave, slope, decamp, flit, bolt, abscond, levant, skedaddle, absquatulate, cut one's stick, walk one's chalks, show a light pair of heels, make oneself scarce, escape, go away, abandon, reject, lead one a dance, lead one a pretty dance, throw off the scent, play at hide and seek

Adj. unsought, lest, unattempted, in order to avoid, avoiding, neutral, shy of, elusive, evasive, fugitive, runaway, shy, wild

Int. forbear, keep off, hands off, sauve qui peut, [French: every man for himself], devil take the hindmost, phr, "things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme"

N. seclusion, privacy, retirement, reclusion, recess, snugness, delitescence, rustication, rus in urbe, solitude, solitariness, isolation, loneliness, estrangement from the world, voluntary exile, aloofness, cell, hermitage, convent, sanctum sanctorum, depopulation, desertion, desolation, wilderness, howling wilderness, rotten borough, old sarum, exclusion, excommunication, banishment, exile, ostracism, proscription, cut, cut direct, dead cut, inhospitality, inhospitableness, dissociability, domesticity, darby and joan, recluse, hermit, eremite, cenobite, anchoret, anchorite, simon stylites, troglodyte, timon of athens, santon, solitaire, ruralist, disciple of zimmermann, closet cynic, diogenes, outcast, pariah, castaway, pilgarlic, wastrel, foundling, wilding

V. be secluded, live secluded, keep aloof, stand, hold oneself aloof, keep in the background, stand in the background, keep snug, shut oneself up, deny oneself, seclude oneself creep into a corner, rusticate, aller planter ses choux, retire, retire from the world, take the veil, abandon, sport one's oak*, cut, cut dead, refuse to associate with, refuse to acknowledge, look cool upon, turn one's back upon, shut the door upon, repel, blackball, excommunicate, exclude, exile, expatriate, banish, outlaw, maroon, ostracize, proscribe, cut off from, send to coventry, keep at arm's length, draw a cordon round, depopulate, dispeople, unpeople

Adj. secluded, sequestered, retired, delitescent, private, bye, out of the world, out of the way, "the world forgetting by the world forgot", snug, domestic, stay-at-home, unsociable, unsocial, dissocial, inhospitable, cynical, inconversable|, unclubbable, sauvage, troglodytic, solitary, lonely, lonesome, isolated, single, estranged, unfrequented, uninhabitable, uninhabited, tenantless, abandoned, deserted, deserted in one's utmost need, unfriended, kithless, friendless, homeless, lorn, forlorn, desolate, unvisited, unintroduced, uninvited, unwelcome, under a cloud, left to shift for oneself, derelict, outcast, banished

Phr. noli me tangere, "among them but not of them", "and homeless near a thousand homes i stood", far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, "makes a solitude and calls it peace", magna civitas magna solitudo, "never less alone than when alone", "o sacred solitude! divine retreat!"