hidden

1. 1
   adjective

   Placed or positioned out of sight; not able to be seen.

   A hidden camera recorded everyone who entered the lobby.

   The treasure stayed hidden for centuries beneath the old church.

   UsageOften hidden from someone or from view, and well hidden: a key well hidden under a mat.

   Similarconcealed, secret, unseen, invisible, covert

   Oppositevisible, exposed, open, uncovered

   Note

   The participle settled into a true adjective, and it behaves like one. An adverb can fuse with it in front, as in James Yoxall's The Lonely Pyramid, where an oasis lies deep-hidden in a hollow. Hidden talents already leans toward the "obscure" sense: what is out of sight becomes what is not yet known.

2. 2
   adjective

   Not readily apparent or understood; obscure.

   Scholars debated the hidden significance of the ancient inscription.

   Her remark carried a hidden criticism beneath its polite tone.

   UsageCommon pairings: a hidden meaning, a hidden agenda, hidden costs.

   Similarveiled, underlying, obscure, implicit, latent

   Oppositeobvious, explicit, overt, apparent

3. 3
   verb

   Past participle of hide.

   The documents had been hidden long before investigators arrived.

   By nightfall, the smugglers had hidden their cargo in the cellar.

   UsageUsed after have or be: they had hidden the cargo; the cargo was hidden.

   Note

   It is made from the simple past hid plus -en, so the two divide the work: they hid it, they have hidden it. After be, the participle shades into the "out of sight" adjective, since the cargo was hidden can name an act or a state.

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