• Adjective:
  • (British) IPA: /ˈkʌvət/, /ˈkəʊvəːt/
  • (America) IPA: /ˈkoʊvəɹt/, /koʊˈvɜɹt/, /ˈkʌvəɹt/
• Noun:
  • (British) IPA: /ˈkʌvət/, /ˈkəʊvəːt/, /ˈkʌvə/
  • (America) IPA: /ˈkʌvəɹt/, /ˈkoʊvəɹt/, /ˈkʌvəɹ/

covert

1. (now rare) Hidden, covered over; overgrown, sheltered.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.5:

     Within that wood there was a covert glade, / Foreby a narrow foord, to them well knowne […]

   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Gardens

     to plant a covert alley

2. (figuratively) Secret, surreptitious, concealed.

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene i]:

     how covert matters may be best disclosed

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 2”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     whether of open war or covert guile

• See also Thesaurus:covert
• feme covert

• overt

• cover

• German: verdeckt
• Russian: секре́тный
• Spanish: encubierto

covert (plural coverts)

1. A covering.
2. A disguise.
3. A hiding place.
4. Area of thick undergrowth where animals hide.
5. (ornithology) A feather that covers the bases of flight feathers.

1. Surname