What does on the sly mean?

on the sly

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.40 in modern English

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adv

"This diversion was enjoyed on the sly, and unknown to the ladies of the house."
"He was working for us on the sly at the Herald-Traveler-Record-American (before it shortened its topheavy name), then as now a reactionary, homophobic rag. Evidently he placed himself at some risk to help us, I learned later, because he was threatened with dismissal for his unauthorized use of the typesetter."

clandestinely furtively on the down-low on the quiet on the Q.T.

How to pronounce on the sly

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