sneaking

Pluralsneakings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of sneak.

   He has been sneaking out of the office early every Friday.

   Sneaking snacks into the movie theater saves money but annoys the staff.

   Note

   Direction words do much of the work: sneaking in, sneaking out early, sneaking past the guard, sneaking up on someone. Mind the small gap between sneaking up on a classmate, which means creeping toward her, and sneaking on her, the colloquial sense of reporting her misbehavior to a teacher. Before a noun, as in a sneaking suspicion, the spelling is the adjective for secret.

2. 2
   adjective

   Kept secret or done in an underhand way; not openly admitted.

   I have a sneaking suspicion the meeting will run long again.

   Critics called the late amendment a sneaking attempt to cut funding without a vote.

   Similarsecret, nagging, underhand, furtive, covert

   Oppositeopen, overt

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of moving or acting quietly and secretly so as not to be noticed.

   Their late-night sneakings to the kitchen left a trail of crumbs on the stairs.

   After weeks of sneaking and lying, the affair finally came to light.

   Similarskulking, creeping, slinking

   Note

   The noun can count single furtive trips as well as name the habit. Charmian London's The Log of the Snark (1915) records much mirth over the swift sneakings for home of certain men carrying large portions away. Uncountable, it names the behavior as a whole, as in weeks of sneaking and lying.

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