secret 
(c) Occult ; mysterious ; not seen ; not apparent : as, the 
secret operations of physical causes. 
Physic, through which secret art ... I have, 
Together with my practice, made familiar 
To me and to my aid the best infusions 
That dwell in vegetives, in metals, stones. 
Shak., Pericles, Hi. 2. :n. 
2. Affording privacy; retired; secluded; pri- 
vate. 
Abide in a secret place, and hide thyself. 1 Sam. xix. i 
3. Close, cautious, or discreet in speech, or as 
regards the disclosure of one's own or another's 
affairs; faithful in keeping secrets; not given 
to blabbing or the betrayal of confidence ; se- 
cretive; reticent. 
I haue founde yow, in ernest and in game, 
Att all tymes full secrete and full trew. 
Generydes (E. E. T. S.), 1. 720. 
lie true and secret, thou shalt want no gold. 
Marlowe, Jew of Malta, ii. 2. 
He was . . . very frailly built, with a singular tall fore- 
head and a secret eye. 
R. L. Stevenson, Master of Ballantrae, p. 197. 
Letters secret. See letters. Secret block, a block or 
pulley open at only two orifices to permit the rope to be 
passed round the sheave. Its use is to prevent other ropes 
from being accidentally drawn into the score of the block. 
See cut under block. Secret dovetail. See dovetail. 
Secret service, a department of government service con- 
cerned with the detection of counterfeiting and other 
offenses, civil or political, committed or threatened by per- 
sons who operate in secrecy. =Syn. land 2. Secret, Latent., 
Private, Covert, Occult, Clandestine-, hidden, concealed, cov- 
ered, shrouded, veiled, obscure, recondite, close, unknown. 
The last four of the italicized words, and in their primary 
sense the participles, express intentional concealment ; the 
others do not. Secret is the most general, but expresses 
complete concealment. Latent, literally lying concealed, 
may mean hidden from those most concerned : as, 1 had a 
latent sense, feeling, or desire ; hence its appropriateness 
in the expression latent heal. Private (as, it was kept 
strictly private) emphasizes the fact that some know the 
thing in question, while others are kept in ignorance. 
Covert that is, covered suggests something underhand 
or well put out of sight : as, a covert motive, sneer, irony : 
it is opposed to frank or avowed. Occult suggests mystery 
that cannot be penetrated : as, the occult operations of 
nature; occult arts. Clandestine is now always used for 
studious or artful concealment of an objectionable or dis- 
honorable sort : as, a clandestine correspondence : it ap- 
plies especially to action. 
II. 11. 1. Something studiously hidden or con- 
cealed ; a thing kept from general knowledge ; 
what is not or should not be revealed. 
A talebearer revealeth secrets. Prov. xi. 13. 
It is a kind of sicknesse for a Frenchman to keep a se- 
cret long, and all the drugs of Egypt cannot get it out of 
a Spaniard. 
Howell, Forreine Travell (I860, rep. 1869), p. 31. 
She had no secret places to keep anything in, nor had 
she ever known what it was to have a secret in all her in- 
nocent life. Mrs. Oliphant, Poor Gentleman, xlii. 
2. A hidden, unrevealed, unexplained, or unex- 
plainable thing; a mystery. 
The secrets of nature 
Have not more gift in taciturnity. 
Shak., T. and C., iv. 2. 74. 
3. The key or principle by the application of 
which some difficulty is solved, or that which 
is not obvious is explained or made clear ; hid- 
den reason or explanation. 
At length critics condescended to inquire where the se- 
cret of so wide and so durable a popularity lay. 
Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vii. 
The secret of this trick is very simple. 
E. W. Lane, Modern Egyptians, II. 108. 
4. Secrecy. [Rare. ] 
Letters under strict secret were at once written to bish- 
ops selected from various parts of Europe. 
Card. Manning. 
5. In liturgies, a variable prayer in the Roman 
and some other Latin liturgies, said secretly 
(see secretly) by the celebrant after the offer- 
tory, etc., and immediately before the preface. 
After saying to himself a prayer, which was hence called 
the Secret, the bishop raised his voice, and began the 
"Preface." Rock, Church of our Fathers, III. ii. 86. 
6. pi. The parts of the body which propriety 
requires to be concealed. 7. A concealed 
piece or suit of armor. Persons fearing assassi- 
nation sometimes wear such defenses beneath 
their ordinary dress. 
He ... wore under his jerkin a secret, or coat of chain- 
mail, made so light and flexible that it interfered as little 
with his movements as a modern under-waistcoat, yet of 
such proof as he might safely depend upon. 
Scott, Fair Maid of Perth, iv. 
8. A skull-cap of steel worn sometimes under 
and sometimes over the camail. 
9. A skeleton cap of slender 
steel bars, affording a good de- 
fense against a blow, worn with- 
in a hat or other head-covering. 
It was sometimes made with the bars 
pivoted in such a way as to fold up, and 
could be easily carried about the person. 
See idire hat, under wire. Secret, 8. 
10. A secret device or contrivance. 
Below the stage thus formed a vast room, where was 
installed the machinery for the traps, counterpoises, and 
other strange engines and secrete, as they were called. 
Harpers Mag., LXXVIII. 74. 
Discipline of the secret. See discipline. In secret, in 
privacy or secrecy ; without the knowledge of others; pri- 
vately. 
Bread eaten in secret is pleasant. Prov. ix. 17. 
Open secret, a matter or fact which is known to some, 
and which may be mentioned to others without violating 
any confidence; a secret which all who care to inquire 
into may learn. 
It is an open secret to the few who know it, but a mys- 
tery and a stumbling-block to the many, that Science and 
Poetry are own sisters. 
F. Pollock, Int. to W. K. Clifford's Lects. 
The mask [of anonymity] was often merely ostensible, a 
sufficient protection against legal prosecution, but in real- 
ity covering an open secret. Leslie Stephen, Swift, iv. 
secreta (se-kre'ta), n.pl. [NL., neut. pi. of sc- 
cretus, separated, secreted: see secrete, secret.'] 
The products of secretion. Compare excreta. 
secretage (se'kret-aj), K. [< F. secretage; as 
xecrete + -figc.] In furriery, a process in pre- 
paring or dressing furs, in which mercury or 
some of its salts are employed to impart to 
the fur the property of felting, which it did not 
previously possess. Also called secreting, and 
improperly carroting, from the similarity of 
the manipulation to that of carroting. See car- 
rot, v. t. 
secretaire (sek-re-tar'), . [< F. secretaire : see 
secretary.] Same as secretary, ., 4. 
He . . . opened a secretaire, from which he took a 
parchment covered volume, . . . which, in fact, was a 
banker's book. Thackeray, Philip, xxxviii. 
secretarial (sek-re-ta'ri-al), a. [< secretary + 
-/.] Of or pertaining to" a secretary or secre- 
taries: as, secretarial work; a secretarial posi- 
tion. 
The career likeliest for Sterling . . . would have been 
. . . some secretarial, diplomatic, or other official training. 
Carlyle, Sterling, i. 5. 
secretarial!! (sek-re-ta'ri-an), a. [< secretary 
+ -an."] Secretarial. 
We may observe in his book in most years a catalogue 
of preferments with dates and remarks, which latter by 
the Secretarian touches show out of what shop he had 
them. Roger North, Examen, p. 38. (Davws.) 
secretariat (sek-re-ta'ri-at), it. Same as secre- 
tariate. 
secretariate (sek-re-ta'ri-at), .. [< F. secreta- 
riat = It. segrctariato, < ML. secretariate, the 
office of a secretary, < secretarius, a secretary : 
see secretary.'] 1. The office or official position 
of secretary. 2. The place or office where a 
secretary transacts business, preserves records, 
etc. 
secretary (sek're-ta-ri), n. and a. [< ME. sec- 
retary, secretarye',&lso erroneously Decretory, sec- 
ratory, < OF. secretaire, F. secretaire = Pr. secre- 
tari = Sp. Pg. secretario = It. secretario, segre- 
tai-io, < ML. secretaries, a secretary, notary, 
scribe, treasurer, sexton, etc. (a title applied 
to various confidential officers), prop, adj., pri- 
vate, secret, pertaining to private or secret 
matters (LL. secretarium, neut.. a council- 
chamber, conclave, consistory), \ L. secretus, 
private, secret: see secret.'] I. n. ; pi. secreta- 
ries (-riz). It. One who is intrusted with pri- 
vate or secret matters; a confidential officer or 
attendant; a confidant. 
Ralph. Nay, Ned, neuer wincke vpon me ; I care not, I. 
K. Hen. Raphe tels all ; you shall haue a good secre- 
tarie of him. Greene, Friar Bacon, p. 86. 
The great secretary of nature and all learning, Sir Fran- 
cis Bacon. /. Walton, Life of George Herbert. 
A faithful secretary to her sex's foibles. Scott. 
2. A person who conducts correspondence, 
keeps minutes, etc., for another or others, as 
for an individual, a corporation, a society, or a 
committee, and who is charged with the gen- 
eral conduct of the business arising out of or 
requiring such correspondence, or the making 
of such records, etc.: as, a private secretary. 
Abbreviated Sec., sec. 
Raymounde tho writyng, 
Paper and wexe toke to hys secretory, 
Anon a letter conceued hastily. 
Bom. of Partenay (E. E. T. S.), 1. 3135. 
And, Sir, uppou Fryday last passyd, Blake, the Eynges 
secratory, tolde me that there was dely vered a supersedyas 
for all men in that sute. Paston Letters, I. 222. 
His [Bacon's] only excuse was, that he wrote [the book] 
by command, that he considered himself as a mere secre- 
tary. Macaulay, Lord Bacon. 
3. An officer of state who is charged with the 
superintendence and management of a particu- 
lar department of government, (a) In the British 
government there are five secretaries of state -namely, 
secretary-bird 
those for the home, foreign, colonial, war, and Indian de- 
partments. The Secretary of state for the Home Depart- 
ment has charge of the privy signet office, and is respon- 
sible for the internal administration of justice, the main- 
tenance of peace in the country, the supervision of prisons, 
police, sanitary affairs, etc. The Secretary of State for 
Foreign Affairs conduct* all correspondence with foreign 
states, negotiates treaties, appoints ambassadors, etc. 
The Colonial Secretary performs for the colonial depen- 
dencies similar functions to those of the Home Secretary 
for the United Kingdom. The .secretary of state for War, 
assisted by the commander-in-chief, has the entire control 
of the army ; the office dates from It55, when the office 
of Secretary at War was merged into it. The Secretary for 
India governs the affairs of that country with the assis- 
tance of a council. Each secretary of state is assisted by 
two under-secretaries, one permanent and the other con- 
nected with the administration. The Chief Secretary for 
Ireland is not a secretary of state, though his office en- 
tails the performance of duties similar to those performed 
by the secretaries of state. (i>) In the United States gov- 
ernment six of the executive departments are presided 
over by secretaries namely, the Secretary of State, the 
Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, the Secre- 
tary of the Navy, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Sec- 
retary of Agriculture all members of the cabinet; their 
duties are described under the names of their respective 
departments. (See department.) Each State has also its 
Secretary of State, or corresponding officer. 
4. A piece of furniture comprising a table or 
shelf for writing, and drawers, and pigeon- 
holes for the keeping of papers: usually a high 
cabinet-shaped piece, as distinguished from a 
writing-table or desk. 
We have always believed a Secretory [the word had been 
used in sense 2] to be a piece of furniture, mostly of ma- 
hogany, lined with green baize or leather, with a lot of 
little drawers in it. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, i. 15. 
5. Iriprintiiit/, a kind of script type in imitation 
of an engrossing-hand. 6. The secretary-bird 
or crane-vulture, Serpentarius secretaries cor- 
responding secretary, a secretary of a society or other 
body who conducts correspondence on matters relating 
to that body. Recording secretary, a secretary of a 
society or other body who is charged with noting the pro- 
ceedings and keeping the minutes of that body. Secre- 
tary at War, an officer of the British Ministry prior to 
1865, who had the control of the financial arrangements 
of the army. The title was abolished in 1863. 
At court all is confusion : the King, at Lord Bath's in- 
stigation, has absolutely refused to make Pitt Secretary 
at War. Walpole, Letters, II. 5. 
Secretary of Agriculture, of the Interior, of War, 
etc. See def. 3, and department. Secretary Of embas- 
sy or of legation, the principal assistant of an ambassa- 
dor or envoy. 
II. a. Of a secretary; clerkly: noting a style 
of handwriting such as is used in engrossing. 
Alas, Sir, that a fair hand should make such blots ! what 
hand is it'/ Secretarie, Roman, Court, or Text? 
Brome, Northern Lass, iii. 2. 
The document from which I have transcribed the fol- 
lowing yarn is contemporary with the date of the events 
referred to. It is written in a fine secretary hand, and is 
endorsed "A Sad Relation of a Ship in Extremity." 
JIT. and <?., 7th ser., X. 23. 
secretary-bird (sek're-ta-ri-berd), n. Aremark- 
able raptorial bird of Africa, with very long 
legs; the serpent-eater or crane-vulture. This 
bird appears to have been first named Sagittarius by Vos- 
maer in 1769 ; it is le secrflaire, le message, and le mangeur 
de serpens of early French writers, and Falco serpentarius, 
Vultur serpentarius, Otis secretarius, and Vultur secretarius 
of ornithologists of the last century. Between 1797 and 1817 
four different generic names were based upon this type 
(see Sagittarius); and since 1SOO five specific names have 
been added (reptilivorus, africanus, capensis, gambiensie, 
and, erroneously, philippensis) the various combinations 
of the New Latin generic and specific names being now 
about twenty. The earliest tenable generic name (see 
onym) is Serpentarius of Cuvier ; the earliest tenable spe- 
cific name is serpentarius (Miller, 1785). Some strict con- 
structionists of nomenclatural rules would combine these 
in the tautology of Serpentarius serpentarius, a form which 
has been introduced sparingly into the present work, sim- 
ply to recognize its existence. The next specific name in 
chronological order is secretarius of Scopoli, 1786, yield- 
ing with the proper generic name the unexceptionable 
Secretary-bird (Sfrfentarius secretarius). 
onym Serpentarius secretarius. The name secretary refers 
to the bird's crest, which when lying smoothly on the head 
has been likened to a scribe's pen stuck over the ear; and 
tliis is idso the explanation of Sagittarius. The term crane- 
