undercover
pronunciation
How to pronounce undercover in British English:
UK [ˌʌndəˈkʌvə(r)]
How to pronounce undercover in American English:
US [ˌʌndərˈkʌvə(r)]
-
- Adjective:
- conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods
Word Origin
- undercover (adj.)
- 1854, "sheltered," from under + cover (n.). Sense of "operating secretly" attested from 1920.
Example
- 1. The killing involved 27 undercover agents travelling on forged passports .
- 2. Airport screeners still fail undercover tests of their ability to spot concealed weapons .
- 3. Undercover informants can be more useful to the groups they monitor than to their paymasters .
- 4. The operation followed months of undercover police work that gathered evidence of an extraordinarily lucrative empire .
- 5. Key messages to staff should never go undercover , even if one boss had to don a disguise to find this out .