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hole-and-corner love

hole-and-corner

Definitions

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

  • adjective Being in a secret place; conducted secretly.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Clandestine; underhand.

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

  • adjective Conducted in secret; clandestine.

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

  • adjective relating to the peripheral and unimportant aspects of life
  • adjective conducted with or marked by hidden aims or methods

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Don't squirrel it away as a shady hole-and-corner Hertfordshire country-house cabal.

    Tony Blair: The Next Labour Prime Minister? 2010

  • Given how badly he has played his hand and given the hole-and-corner way he has gone about it, the electorate are unlikely to draw a favourable conclusion on the matter.

    Now You See Macavity, Now You Don't 2007

  • Given how badly he has played his hand and given the hole-and-corner way he has gone about it, the electorate are unlikely to draw a favourable conclusion on the matter.

    Archive 2007-12-09 2007

  • Ethelberta was far from putting this matter before Picotee for advice or opinion; but, like all people who have an innate dislike to hole-and-corner policy, she felt compelled to speak of it to some one.

    The Hand of Ethelberta 2006

  • Sooner or later I should have to go to B. for more money, but it seemed hardly decent to do so yet, and in the meantime I must exist in some hole-and-corner way.

    Down and Out in Paris and London 2004

  • “Oh, it is a hole-and-corner business, and God only knows why,” he answered.

    Youth 2003

  • They chatted a time, then the boy looked hole-and-corner about him.

    At Swim, Two Boys Jamie O’Neill 2002

  • They chatted a time, then the boy looked hole-and-corner about him.

    At Swim, Two Boys Jamie O’Neill 2002

  • Gazette it was all somehow very hole-and-corner, almost furtive, She had crept in and out of the office as if she had something to be ashamed about, to cover up; as if she was the guilty party!

    Sleeping Partners Lamb, Charlotte, 1937- 1991

  • Why the need for all this—this hole-and-corner secrecy?

    WARCHILD ESTHER FRIESNER 1990

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