a. [a. F. furtif, furtive, ad. L. furtīvus, f. fūr thief; cf. furtum theft, furtim adv., by stealth.]
1. Done by stealth or with the hope of escaping observation; clandestine, surreptitious, secret, unperceived.
1490. [implied in FURTIVELY].
1612. Woodall, The Surgeons Mate, Wks. (1653), 301. In the more simple sort of Gun-shot wound, as followeth, I mean in wounds, where no Gangrena may be suspected, neither immediate Flux, nor furtive hemorrhage, dresse the Patient.
1635. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Banish’d Virg. Stolen embraces and furtive births prov’d to be ever the best.
1656. Artif. Handsom., 96. By a furtive simulation.
1787–9. Wordsw., Evening Walk, 423. Tender cares and mild domestic loves With furtive watch pursue her as she moves.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 106. I noticed the same singular, and, as it were, furtive glance, over the shoulder.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, II. 128. The proprietor of the house cowered over a bed-candle, and a furtive tea-pot in the back drawing-room.
1877. Gladstone, Glean. (1879), IV. xx. 354. It does not at once appear how the Canal could be secured against the furtive scuttling of ships.
b. Hebrew Gram. (See quot.)
1852. trans. Gesenius’ Hebr. Gram., 42. [Between a strong and unchangeable vowel and a final guttural] there is involuntarily uttered a hasty ā (Pathach furtive)…. Analogous to this is our use of a furtive e before r after long [vowels]; e.g. here (sounded hēer), fire (fier).
2. Of a person, etc.: Stealthy, sly.
1858. Lytton, What Will He Do with It? II. xiv. There was something furtive and sinister about the man.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., III. i. Eyeing him with furtive eyes.
1867. M. Arnold, St. Brandon. That furtive mien, that scowling eye.
3. Obtained by theft, stolen; also in milder sense, taken by stealth or secretly.
1718. Prior, Solomon, I. 500.
| Or do they [planets] (as your Schemes, I think, have shown) | |
| Dart furtive Beams, and Glory not their own, | |
| All Servants to that Source of Light, the Sun? |
1729. Savage, Wanderer, I. 206.
| He clear’d, manur’d, enlarg’d the furtive Ground, | |
| And firms the Conquest with his fenceful Mound. |
1864. Kirk, Chas. Bold, I. i. 25. The patches from which a furtive harvest was thus gathered.
1894. J. T. Fowler, Adamnan, Introduction, p. liii. The post-Adamnanic legend of Columba’s furtive copy from St. Finnian’s psalter.
4. Thievish, pilfering.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol. (1843) II. 38. Who does not smile when he reads of … ants, whose employment is to mine for gold, and from whose vengeance the furtive Indian is constrained to fly on the swift camel’s back?
1873. Burton, Hist. Scot., VI. lxx. 208. The Highlander could not be absolutely trusted to withhold his furtive hand from the flocks of his chiefs friend.
1885. That Very Mab, viii. 129. The farmers were so much plagued by the furtive bird.
Hence Furtively adv., Furtiveness.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, xix. 69. I wold not haue departed furtyuely out of thy land.
1765. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, VIII. xxiv. One lambent delicious fire, furtively shooting out from every part of it.
1838. Dickens, Nich. Nick., xxvi. Sir Mulberry … had been furtively trying to discover whence Kate had so suddenly appeared.
1862. Miss Braddon, Lady Audley, viii. 55. My lady’s pale-faced maid, who looked furtively under her white eye-lashes at the two young men.
1884. Bosanquet, trans. Lotze’s Metaphysic, 211. Nothing can be more doubtful than the implied idea by which, whether furtively or explicitly, we console ourselves, that there may be other modes of perception X or Z which permit to beings of different organization the feat which we cannot perform.
1896. Westm. Gaz., 4 Aug., 1/3. Strolling, as we do … through the press and bustle, we can sometimes capture a smalt hasty furtiveness.
