surreptitious
adjective

- done secretly, without anyone seeing or knowing

Cambridge Dictionary

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SYNONYMS

clandestine, covert, furtive, hidden, hush-hush, secret, secretive, sneaky, stealthy, unauthorized

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ANTONYMS

aboveboard, candid, direct, forthright, honest, open, public, straightforward, truthful

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TALKING POINT

For over 600 years, a 9-foot-tall stucco (Gipsputz) Buddha statue sat in Bangkok, Thailand. Known as the Phra Phuttha Maha Suwan Patimakon, it was so heavy that it sat outside for years, with a simple tin roof covering the statue.

Then, in 1955, the statue was accidentally dropped while being moved to a new location. Pieces of the stucco broke off, and the shocked onlookers realized the entire Buddha was solid gold.

Worth an estimated $250 million, the statue had been SURREPTITOUSLY covered with stucco to protect it from Burmese invaders back in the 1700s.