covert

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• adjective Not openly practiced, avowed, engaged in, accumulated, or shown: synonym: secret.
• adjective Covered or covered over; sheltered.
• adjective Law Being married and therefore protected by one's husband.
• noun A covering or cover.
• noun A covered place or shelter; hiding place.
• noun Thick underbrush or woodland affording cover for game.
• noun Zoology One of the small feathers covering the bases of the longer feathers of a bird's wings or tail.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To cover.
• Covered; hidden; private; secret; concealed; disguised.
• Sheltered; not open or exposed: as, a covert place.
• In law, under cover, authority, or protection: said of a married woman. See feme covert, under feme.
• noun A protection; a shelter; a defense; something that covers and shelters.
• noun Something that conceals or hides; a screen; a disguise; a pretext; an excuse.
• noun A thicket; a shady place or a hiding-place; a cover for game.
• noun Same as coverture, 3.
• noun In fowling, a company; a flock.
• noun plural In ornithology, feathers covering the bases, or more, of the large feathers of the wing or tail; the tectrices.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A place that covers and protects; a shelter; a defense.
• noun (Zoöl.) One of the special feathers covering the bases of the quills of the wings and tail of a bird. See Illust. of Bird.
• adjective Covered over; private; hid; secret; disguised.
• adjective Sheltered; not open or exposed; retired; protected.
• adjective (Law) Under cover, authority or protection.
• adjective (Fort.) See Covered way, under Covered.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• adjective Hidden, covered over; overgrown, sheltered.
• adjective figuratively Secret, surreptitious, concealed.
• noun Area of thick undergrowth where animals hide.
• noun A feather that covers others

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a flock of coots
• noun a covering that serves to conceal or shelter something
• adjective (of a wife) being under the protection of her husband
• adjective secret or hidden; not openly practiced or engaged in or shown or avowed