Covertly

adv. [f. COVERT a. + -LY².] In a covert manner.

  † 1.  In a close covered manner; closely.

1430.  in Turner, Dom. Archit., III. 39. So couertly euery thynge was couered.

c. 1470.  Henry, Wallace, II. 277. Rycht couertly thai kepe him in that caiff.

1585.  Q. Eliz., 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.

c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 6113. He his lyf led covertly In Gile and in Ipocrisie.

1430.  Lydg., Chron. Troy, III. xxv. The tother eye can laugh couertly.

c. 1530.  Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 178. Commaunding them al to be … in … a certayn place, as couertly as they myght, wythout any noyse.

1653.  H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., xxvi. § 1. 97. Getting Information very covertly.

1789.  H. Walpole, Remin., ii. 16. To make his addresses to her not covertly.

1874.  Motley, 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.

c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 19. Wightes That dremen … Ful many thinges covertly That fallen after al openly.

c. 1450.  Merlin, xix. 305. Whan Blase herde Merlin thus couertly speke.

1586.  W. Webbe, Eng. Poetrie (Arb.), 53. Virgill hath a gallant report of Augustus couertly comprysed in the first Æglogue.

1690.  T. Burnet, Th. Earth, IV. IV. 158. There are, covertly or expresly … glances upon the Millennium.

1783.  Hailes, Antiq. Chr. Ch., v. 152. He treats of them, although covertly and in an indirect manner.

1824.  Mackintosh, 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.].