secret
 I. adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a closely-guarded secret
▪ Details of the program are a closely-guarded secret.
a secret ambition
▪ His secret ambition was to become a pilot.
a secret code
▪ the secret codes used during the two world wars
a secret diary (=that no one else knows about or reads)
▪ He found his sister’s secret diary.
a secret message
▪ a secret message written in lemon juice
a secret passage
▪ The bookcase moved to reveal a secret passage.
an open secret (=it is supposed to be secret, but most people know about it)
▪ It is an open secret that she is having an affair with another man.
closely guarded secret
▪ a closely guarded secret
confidential/secret
▪ That information was confidential and should not have been passed on.
divulge information/secrets/details etc (to sb)
▪ It is not company policy to divulge personal details of employees.
keep...secret
▪ You won’t be able to keep it secret for ever.
secret admirer
▪ a secret admirer
secret agent
secret ballot
▪ The party leader is elected by secret ballot.
secret ballot
▪ The chairman was elected by secret ballot.
secret police
secret rendezvous
▪ plans for a secret rendezvous
secret service
tell sb a secret
▪ I offered to tell her my secret if she didn’t tell anyone else.
the secret of sb's success (=what makes them successful)
▪ A visitor asked Connie the secret of her success with growing roses.
trade secret
▪ The Coca-Cola formula is a well-kept trade secret.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
 NOUN
agent
▪ Jack had specifically asked his secret agent to confine himself to a couple of current photographs and Polly's address.
▪ They say that the better the secret agent, the less one hears about him.
▪ It was not every night, she reflected, that she dined with a secret agent.
▪ Story: A team of secret agents battles double-crossing spies and arms dealers.
▪ Even the bureaucrats involved took to playing games and devising ruses, for all the world like secret agents themselves.
▪ The secret agent in his place, he wrote, the infiltrator safely ensconced.
ballot
▪ On Oct. 27 the central committee proposed that multi-candidate elections with secret ballots be obligatory.
▪ The elections are by secret ballot, and an absolute majority is required.
▪ Gorbachev's re-election as general secretary Gorbachev was re-elected general secretary on July 10 by secret ballot.
▪ An election by secret ballot shall be held. 3.
▪ He voted against church disestablishment in Ireland, also against the secret ballot, though for temperance reform.
▪ The secret ballot gave these students their first free opportunity to express opposition.
▪ Such a decision, taken through the prescribed secret ballot procedures, could ultimately be imposed by parents on a governing body.
▪ Under the Agricultural Labor Relations Act, elections are by secret ballot.
code
▪ And we proved it by cracking the manufacturers' secret codes.
▪ The journal comes with eight secret codes to protect privacy.
▪ We've got to talk in secret codes, like the P-Funk codes.
▪ There were secret caches, secret trails, secret codes, secret missions, secret terrors and appetites and longings and regrets.
▪ His days of peering into the secret codes of foreign nations, he feared, were over for ever.
▪ She was shouting again, trying to tell Glover something in her secret code.
compartment
▪ The Ramsland had secret compartments below decks but the Coast Guard knew all about those secret compartments.
▪ Put a copy in your locked desk drawer and another in the secret compartment of your briefcase.
▪ The Ramsland had secret compartments below decks but the Coast Guard knew all about those secret compartments.
▪ Detecting secret compartments remains a challenge for immigration inspectors, Ward said.
▪ The secret compartment was ten feet long, the same as the bathroom, but only three feet wide.
▪ He learned how to work the truck's secret compartments.
▪ The mind does not play tricks with us; it holds no secret compartments.
deal
▪ He has called for the compulsory registration of all property transactions in an attempt to stop the use of secret deals.
▪ Morris signed his secret deal with Random House almost exactly a year ago.
▪ Equally notable figures will spring to the defence of the secret deal, however.
garden
▪ As you walk through the door, however, you see something that exists nowhere else: a secret garden.
▪ That is to say it is a secret garden.
▪ She would have all summer in the secret garden before he came back.
▪ Nothing, other than ownership and the secret garden, appears to distinguish them from the other tenants around them.
▪ The next day Mary met Dickon as usual in the secret garden, and told him about Colin.
▪ The monastic cloisters enclose a medieval-style secret garden and an ancient stone fountain carved with fantastic beasts!
▪ Sadly, space is often lacking for the ideal secret garden.
▪ At last she was inside the secret garden!
information
▪ However, bear in mind that the secret information which I have imparted to you can be a defence against rapists.
ingredient
▪ And what a sauce.The secret ingredient for the latest taste in cheese.
▪ Every other layer is spinach noodles, and the secret ingredient is the fifth cheese.
▪ He extracted their blood and their vital juices and boiled them up with mercury and potassium and other, secret ingredients.
▪ They began to assemble a whole lot more than secret ingredients.
▪ Meanwhile the 600 secret ingredients in cigarettes are to be published by the Health Department, writes Kevin Maguire.
▪ There also are secret ingredients that she will not divulge.
life
▪ This proved some consolation for the ever-present insecurity Jean-Claude's secret life imposed on me.
▪ I think his real secret life was more innocent, and at the same time more subtle.
▪ But his secret life was contracting as East/West tensions slackened.
▪ In the bright early pages, the author stitches life and secret life exuberantly though sometimes roughly together.
▪ Something about the place is summed up in its smell - the secret life of a space.
▪ It made him feel good to know she was living a secret life, just like he was.
▪ The secret life of an embezzler.
▪ It was a death without dignity, a random fall through the cracks of a secret life.
meeting
▪ We had staked out the war memorial where the secret meeting was destined to occur.
▪ There have been no secret meetings of the Democrat majority to pick and choose personnel.
negotiation
▪ Early in 1202 secret negotiations had already begun between Otto and Innocent.
▪ Henry Kissinger was also confounded and frustrated by the Communists during his secret negotiations with them.
passage
▪ He'd like to know the location of the secret passages in the kitchen and bedrooms.
▪ It is like a secret passage, bringing Deptford workers north of the river, taking them home again at night.
▪ He built secret passages underground, and his secret house on the lake.
▪ I don't feel alarmed as I know of many secret passages, but they have all become too small to use.
▪ It is as though there were a secret passage underneath the knife-edge.
▪ But that secret passage contains a one-way valve: there is an asymmetry.
▪ And I was sure there was a secret passage because the walls were so old and thick.
place
▪ It was not that he had found the one secret place where the Author could not see him.
▪ Rather dance in a secret place?
▪ Once he saw a glade, a secret place with a floor of pale, sandy soil.
▪ Los Alamos, the most secret place in the world when he was born.
▪ Burning out the shames, the deepest, oldest shames, in the most secret places.
▪ Everyone under-stands that the senate is a dark place, a secret place, a place not unlike a cesspool!
▪ It was a most secret place.
▪ I think there must be some secret place, like where elephants gather to die.
plan
▪ It was clear that Rupert of Hentzau had his own secret plans for that night.
▪ We had no secret plan to make hits.
▪ It was her secret plan in action, of course.
▪ While the people in the neighborhood spent and rebuilt, City Hall proceeded with its secret plan.
▪ After a few days, I found the boys making secret plans behind a bush.
▪ I have no secret plan for world domination.
police
▪ And that would get us back to castor oil and the secret police.
▪ Naturally, the secret police and the military leaders were men, and they subjected their female prisoners to sexually specific tortures.
▪ Makarenko had better relations with the local secret police than with any other official authority.
▪ What are you, secret police?
▪ Anton Tkalec, coin dealer in Vienna, now in Zurich, and some ex-members of the secret police and army establishment.
▪ The deadline for the surrender of the Securitate secret police was only a few hours ago.
▪ The secret police of your childhood were older and wiser than you, bigger than you.
recipe
▪ No one has ever discovered the secret recipe for army tea.
▪ Is there some secret recipe for roasting whole potatoes?
▪ He is Dieter Schmidt and his secret recipe keeps him awake for the 20-hour flights.
service
▪ That is the means by which we control the operations of our secret services.
▪ A secret service contact told Mark Gutteridge that Margaret Thatcher would have seen the information.
▪ And Jack Stone had slipped the police and secret service web.
▪ The two, who have pleaded not guilty, deny working as secret service agents.
▪ Pacepa was not the first defector from the world of Soviet bloc secret services to make such a claim.
smile
▪ He had been watching Cardiff, and now that infuriating secret smile registered again.
▪ He smiles a few secret smiles and shakes his head when Anne and Millie look at him.
▪ His secret smile that just exposed his teeth.
▪ Was there a secret smile hovering about his mouth?
▪ Then Miss Foley, the Director's secretary, calm and self-possessed, wearing always that secret smile.
society
▪ Selvon and I, like members of some secret society were always together.
▪ Can secret societies be prohibited in public schools?
▪ The Mafia was supposed to be originally a subversive secret society.
▪ Silly though it may have seemed at first, these all-male secret societies are bastions of extraordinary power and influence.
▪ Ramsay's other secret society, the Right Club, was also ostensibly closed down at the outbreak of war.
▪ The Boxer rebellion of 1900, led by a secret society with mysterious and terrifying rituals, was motivated solely by xenophobia.
▪ It's absolutely horrible but Malcolm would insist on taking you there because it made him feel part of some secret society.
▪ It was years since he had read it but he thought Jung had said something about the universal need for secret societies.
weapon
▪ His secret weapon has been a three-wood he first used last June.
▪ And Bannister, who weighs 22 stone and has size 17 feet, could be Cadle's secret weapon.
▪ Further, there was the frightening possibility of new secret weapons.
▪ So long as she stayed silent she had a secret weapon.
▪ Yet Drake had been aided by a secret weapon.
▪ But his real secret weapon is an amazing talent for simultaneously combining slide with fretted notes.
▪ The next day she carried her secret weapon to school in her satchel.
world
▪ It was their own secret world, and they did not let me into it again.
▪ These excursions in the dark were like a door to another world-the secret world of mice and shrews and moles and voles.
▪ To some they're simply an engaging fantasy, but for others they create a secret world that can last a lifetime.
▪ The secret world of organized labor.
▪ Tatham might have been a natural but Magill had been the achiever in the secret world.
▪ It is immensely difficult for outsiders to begin to assess the efficiency of the secret world.
▪ And a matter of days for Fergie and her friend's secret world to be shattered.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
keep a secret
▪ Can you keep a secret?
▪ Most humans are not very good at keeping secrets.
▪ Richie was in the know but the plan was kept a secret from Midge and Stevie.
▪ The private key, used to encrypt transmitted information by the user, is kept secret.
▪ The public key is used to decrypt information at the receiver and is not kept secret.
▪ The relationship was not kept secret from her supervisors.
▪ The state gave them to visiting businessmen whose names are being kept secret.
▪ What happened a few miles away was kept secret.
▪ Zhang was killed instantly, although his death was kept secret for a few days.
the secret police
the secret service
unlock the secrets/mysteries of sth
▪ Scientists succeeded in unlocking the secrets to polio's cause.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Secret documents containing details of Britain's defence plans have been stolen.
▪ secret information
▪ a senior member of the secret service
▪ He hid the fact that he was a secret drinker from his employees for many years.
▪ He made a secret trip to the White House in order to secure an agreement.
▪ Her secret fear was that Jim would find out where she was living.
▪ I actually think he's pr9bably a secret Republican voter.
▪ I had a secret ambition to return to politics.
▪ I hope you see how vital it is that our conversation remains secret.
▪ Psychologists say that dreams can reveal our secret desires.
▪ She was kept under surveillance by the secret police for over three years.
▪ The experiments were top secret.
▪ The film tells the story of a Swiss secret agent who masquerades as a grocer in order to uncover a drugs ring.
▪ The Leader of the House will be selected by secret ballot.
▪ The letter was written in a secret code.
▪ The president's schedule is secret, but there is speculation that he will visit UN troops in the area.
▪ Williams' diaries reveal all his secret hopes and fears.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But Sloan would not say who had ordered him to make the secret payments.
▪ He had avoided detection during the war, when for wholly different reasons he was murdered by the Saigon secret police.
▪ In February 1990 more secret files were found at both the Defence and Justice Ministries.
▪ Judges in their secret chambers ask other questions.
▪ The secret, almost inaccessible haven where the black-robed savants hoarded the wisdom that sustained the people of Arcadia.
▪ The rock is also riddled with tunnels, some of which come out at secret entrances in the forest below.
▪ They say that the better the secret agent, the less one hears about him.
II. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
ADJECTIVE
big
▪ What is there, some big secret about who they are?
▪ Moms have always worked, but it was a big secret left out of the history books.
▪ Whats the big secret??????
▪ But that big, awful secret from her past prevents Lisa from fully accepting his love.
▪ That is my big secret with Ken.
▪ Seemed proud of himself for having found out, because he said it's supposed to be the planet's big secret.
dark
▪ The terrible face showed the dark secrets of his life.
▪ A sexy female boss hiding dark family secrets from her past and using her street smarts to get even.
▪ Dennis Reason, a bank manager with dark secrets.
▪ You told your partner your deepest, darkest childhood secret in confidence.
▪ It was as if he had released some dark and terrible secret which had been boiling within him.
▪ I was fascinated by Elvira because she had no family and because she seemed to know the darkest secrets.
▪ It leads to death and a scandalous murder inquiry which threatens to expose some dark secrets.
▪ Did one of our four women have a dark secret?
great
▪ The great secret about Steve Forbes is that he is a lifelong member of the political establishment.
▪ Did he possess some great secret?
▪ Reveal to me the great secret.
▪ The great secret which life has kept from us is that once born, life is immortal.
▪ Now, I see you have the great inner secret, too.
▪ Our great secret with Python was we got rid of punchlines.
▪ But that was no great secret.
▪ This is one of the great inner secrets of sports.
innermost
▪ I will show you the innermost secret of life.
▪ In effect, White House aides were assigned to tell reporters the innermost secrets of the Administration.
▪ Their innermost secrets had been at the mercy of the West for a year.
▪ The only person he would allow into his innermost secrets - and then only occasionally - was Lou.
▪ It deserves a book to itself, and a fat volume it would be when all its innermost secrets are known.
▪ Charles and Camilla have called each other many times over their years of friendship, spending hours sharing their innermost secrets.
kept
▪ So too did a handful of his closest friends though, for once, this was a rightly kept secret.
▪ Male speaker I regard it as the best kept secret.
little
▪ Nigel tried to confront her with her little secret that evening.
▪ The little secret no one lets out is that what one does after putting on the badge is not all that exciting.
▪ Yes, the little secret is out.
▪ Gore has made little secret of his own ambitions.
▪ But tell me, Joe, how did you guess our little secret?
▪ He thinks of this as his little secret.
▪ It was what he always called her when they were alone, their little secret, a token of his affection.
▪ Let me tell you a few little secrets about study habits.
official
▪ He mumbled about official secrets and civil service discipline.
▪ The scientists have used a model to test the technology, which was an official secret until recently.
▪ The crime is to disclose an official secret, probably even if extracted from the accused at the point of a pistol.
▪ Full scale reform of official secrets legislation is still very much a topic of current debate.
▪ The Government's official secrets legislation in 1989 was guillotined after only two days in committee in the lower House.
▪ It had few civil servants and therefore few official secrets.
open
▪ It is an open secret that he and Reg Pybus are bosom pals.
▪ It was an open secret that the marriage had become a complete sham, Watson.
▪ It is an open secret, however, that soldiers are not to arrest war criminals they encounter.
top
▪ An almost finished game of snakes and ladders was laid out amongst top secret briefing papers.
▪ The Bawdsey experiments were top secret.
▪ His cheesemaker is situated on the outskirts of the village, but he keeps names top secret from the culinary competition.
▪ The developments remain top secret and no-one from the factory or the team would confirm or deny the existence of the kit.
▪ The plans incorporate several revolutionary new concepts which, for obvious reasons, must be kept top secret.
NOUN
business
▪ There are generally two possible valid interests on which he may rely; special trade connections and business secrets.
▪ Moreover in the area of business secrets there may be a different approach.
▪ Two types of contractual provision are commonly used for the purpose of protecting business secrets.
▪ Firstly there are undertakings to maintain the confidentiality of business secrets and not to use them except for limited purposes.
▪ However, this type of business secrets clause suffers from the problem of detecting breach.
▪ Therefore, the basic question was: what were business secrets?
▪ However the courts have consistently recognised the interest that the employer or any other covenantee has in protecting business secrets.
▪ However, the employee is still prevented from betraying his employer's business secrets.
state
▪ Architectural plans are not local authority or state secrets.
▪ The breakdown of discipline and morale in the professional officer corps is hardly a state secret.
▪ The charges included conspiracy, espionage, revealing state secrets and threatening the Constitution.
▪ I said that throughout history a number of great leaders had kept matters of state secret even from their wives.
▪ There were no state secrets involved.
▪ In a written order, Yeltsin charged his erstwhile buddy with slandering the president and his family and disclosing state secrets.
▪ This is the body that, supposedly protecting state secrets, issues lists of forbidden subjects.
▪ The information used to be a state secret.
trade
▪ Only those manufacturing steps that involve trade secrets are kept in-house.
▪ The 75 undisclosed classified documents include trade secrets obtained from companies that asked them to be kept confidential.
▪ He says they're trade secrets and Jaws is just a trout compared to a Zander.
▪ The Court of Appeal considered that the information did not amount to a trade secret.
▪ It might cover secret processes and trade secrets. 5.
▪ In terms of writing computer software, a program to automate an existing manual process will probably not be considered a trade secret.
▪ Confidential information Every company has confidential information and trade secrets.
▪ The task force will concentrate on rooting out theft of trade secrets and high-tech components, particularly integrated circuits.
VERB
discover
▪ He held her head more tightly as her lips discovered more secrets.
▪ In 1706, August hired E.W. von Tschirnhaus to discover the secret.
▪ Success was very limited until, in the summer of 1983, a colleague discovered the secret.
▪ I have at last discovered the true secret to quitting smoking.
▪ Only five people lived on the island, so I could work alone, and nobody would discover my awful secret.
▪ When the two sets of parents discovered the secret, they were livid.
▪ He both hated it and loved it, and he became more and more afraid that some one would discover his secret.
▪ It occurred to me that here in my old street I might discover the secret of time.
divulge
▪ Death was the alleged penalty for those who divulged the secrets of the order.
▪ You just didn't say those sort of things, or divulge such secrets, about your wife.
▪ However the Phoenix Guard never divulge their secrets and no one has ever seen the Chamber of Days and lived.
▪ Perhaps she could seal their reconciliation by divulging her secret.
guard
▪ Maybe the time has come when they will now pass on the secret that they have so jealously guarded.
▪ For more than forty years his existence had been a closely guarded secret.
▪ The squad is a closely-\\#guarded secret, although Steve McManaman has been told he will be needed in Birmingham.
▪ His smoking had been one of the most closely guarded secrets of the campaign.
▪ Most of all, her image was private, a guarded secret: it was all the privacy she had.
▪ The winning design was chosen a few months ago and has been a closely guarded secret.
▪ The priests guarded their secrets well by living highly secluded lives, usually in monasteries adjacent to their observatories.
▪ Details of the program are closely guarded secrets.
hide
▪ They were carefully guarded, as if they hid secrets he didn't intend ever to reveal to anyone.
▪ Its mission is to reveal the hidden cultural secrets of ancient cookware, among other things.
▪ I stopped to look at them, and thought for a moment they looked like prison doors, hiding evil secrets.
▪ A sexy female boss hiding dark family secrets from her past and using her street smarts to get even.
▪ From Druidic lore to the Christmas kiss, bird and berry hid secrets in the winter night.
▪ The former wants to hide its secret from the world; the latter wants to hide it from the nation.
▪ Blue eyes met black, the unfathomable deep waters of which hid countless secrets.
hold
▪ The report said that the trials generally lacked any due process of law and most were held in secret.
▪ Claudio is the world. weary bachelor, independently wealthy, and convinced that life holds no more secrets for him.
▪ Lessing held many secrets inside his narrow head, and this was one more.
▪ The candidates' true electoral strategies, however, are closely held secrets.
▪ In that code could be genes that hold the secrets of higher yields, better pest-resistance and richer nourishment.
▪ It means he holds the secrets.
keep
▪ Most humans are not very good at keeping secrets.
▪ The relationship was not kept secret from her supervisors.
▪ It was not the diplomats but the politicians who kept agreements secret.
▪ The Sphinx could keep his secret, we decided.
▪ I have asked him to keep the matter secret.
▪ I said that throughout history a number of great leaders had kept matters of state secret even from their wives.
▪ Maura had been seeing Terry for nearly five months, and miraculously had managed to keep him a secret.
▪ Don't husbands sometimes keep huge secrets from their wives?
know
▪ If he died he would never know its secret, or what it had contained.
▪ And you are the only person apart from Pepe who knows my secret.
▪ Every time we think we know all about the secrets of insects, the insects tell us something new.
▪ Suddenly I was sure that I knew the secret of life.
▪ I know a little about your secret.
▪ Only Jasper knew my secret, and that is what it was, a secret.
learn
▪ Everybody was surprised to see Anne with very short hair, but no one learned the secret.
▪ The poor farmer spent a joyful year in her company, during which he learned many wonderful secrets.
▪ Pool wants to learn its secrets.
▪ Prospective software developers had to learn the secrets of the toolbox so they could follow the guidelines for human interface.
▪ Can they reach his brain in time, obliterate the clot, and learn the secrets the man holds?
▪ For obvious reasons Jim could not conduct a public courtship, and so he learned to make a secret of his movements.
▪ If we could only learn his secret, Implexion thought, staring into the moonlit darkness of Inanna's bedroom.
▪ He learned other secrets of success in the humor trade from experience.
make
▪ They know about her, of course: I made no secret of it.
▪ The people of the North made no secret of their dismay over the way things were going.
▪ He had never made any secret of the fact that he thought Jack's life choices incomprehensible.
▪ They broke or brushed aside the obstacles that stood in their way, and made no secret of paying any necessary bribes.
▪ The bank had made no secret of their dismay over Virgin's venture into airlines.
▪ Gore has made little secret of his own ambitions.
▪ She became a tireless champion of Aurangzeb's interests, making little secret of her hatred for Dara and Jahanara.
▪ Women made no secret about why staying single was better than getting married.
pass
▪ It suggests there was an Oxford spy ring in the 1930s which passed secrets to the Soviet Union.
▪ They may after all have been passing secrets to Soviet agents.
▪ If only she was alive today to pass on the secrets of her success.
protect
▪ He realised that Marion's reticence was to protect the secret of her love affair with Ronald Travis.
▪ How can you protect your inventions and secrets?
▪ The first would be to protect Britain's own secrets by developing the necessary cipher machines, codes and operating procedures.
▪ A prudent employer will always have an express contractual term protecting business secrets.
▪ He's protecting the secret of the Durances.
▪ Yesterday's ruling suggests companies seeking to protect their commercial secrets may have a case under Section 10.
remain
▪ She added that a second company had also been given approval, but had asked for their name to remain secret.
▪ Details of the frame remain a secret.
▪ Precisely what was said between them to prompt the scuffle remains a fairly well-kept secret, but conditions certainly were incendiary enough.
▪ What had passed through his mind in the baggage-room at Royalbion House would remain his own personal secret.
▪ My secrets will remain my secrets.
▪ Most remain secret, but a handful have been revealed in memoirs or by loquacious retirees.
reveal
▪ The charges included conspiracy, espionage, revealing state secrets and threatening the Constitution.
▪ Its mission is to reveal the hidden cultural secrets of ancient cookware, among other things.
▪ I resolved to find that machine, and reveal its secrets to all.
▪ But why Zeus changed his mind and whether Prometheus revealed the secret when he was freed, we do not know.
▪ Read in studio One of the oldest people in Britain has revealed her secret: a drop of Brandy in her tea.
▪ He did not reveal his secret to his brothers, or to any of his friends in his village.
▪ The objects we use to do these mundane tasks each day reveal the inner secrets of domestic life.
sell
▪ Intel officials were afraid Gaede would sell the secrets to a foreign company that could use the information to clone Pentium chips.
share
▪ Their heads were together: friends sharing a secret.
▪ She then looks at me shyly and smiles as though she has shared a secret.
▪ Fortunately, the Ndembu are generously prepared to share the secrets of this symbolism with us.
▪ The poem is not the depository for the feelings and reactions of the poet trying to share secrets with the reader.
▪ They all shared each other's secret.
▪ Sam was glad that he'd never invited him to share Evelyn's secrets.
▪ In terms of sharing secrets, with the Democrats there were no secrets.
steal
▪ Nils had told her Madreidetic hadn't yet stolen the secret of imminence-awareness from the Company but that was no reassurance.
▪ The Pentagon claims Kevin Lee Poulssen, 28, stole military secrets.
tell
▪ It's as if you're the first person she's told her secret to in years.
▪ We had to be shushed and calmed down when we got hysterical laughing and telling secrets and making jokes.
▪ Smallfry always threatened to lock him in the toolshed with Rosie if ever he dared tell her secrets to anyone else.
▪ In effect, White House aides were assigned to tell reporters the innermost secrets of the Administration.
▪ During the month of October 1974 Karen told nobody about her secret, but she felt very lonely.
▪ One guy who has been very successful at it once told me his secret of success.
▪ Shall I tell you a secret?
unlock
▪ I unlocked the secret, so to speak.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ A scientist has been arrested for revealing state secrets concerning chemical weapons.
▪ Come over here, Luke wants to tell you a secret.
▪ His whereabouts are a closely-guarded secret.
▪ Hollywood stars reveal their beauty secrets in next month's edition.
▪ I'm not supposed to be telling you this, it's a secret.
▪ I can't tell you that - it's a secret.
▪ I don't know what her secret is but she always gets top marks in exams.
▪ It's one of those family secrets that we don't talk about much.
▪ Mr. Ritchie, you're a millionaire at the age of twenty. What's the secret of your success?
▪ Only Jasper knew my secret.
▪ The task force will concentrate on stopping the theft of trade secrets.
▪ We lived in a small village and I knew that the news wouldn't remain a secret for very long.
▪ Yes, the secret's out I'm afraid. I'm to be a grandmother.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Gore has made little secret of his own ambitions.
▪ Her well-kept secret finally was revealed Tuesday.
▪ I know a little about your secret.
▪ Jenny and Michael Aldous, who garden here, have obviously hit upon the secret of colour throughout the summer.
▪ The men at his level were spawning secrets that quivered like reptile eggs.
▪ We had chanced across one of the best-kept secrets of the Rockies, the danger from bears.
▪ You cease to be yourself, you become your secret.
secret
I. se‧cret1 S3 W2 /ˈsiːkrət, ˈsiːkrɪt/ adjective
[Word Family: noun: secrecy, secret, secretiveness; adverb: secretly, secretively; adjective: secret, secretive; verb: secrete]
[date : 1300-1400; Language : Old French; Origin : Latin secretus, past participle of secernere 'to separate']
1. known about by only a few people and kept hidden from others ⇨ secrecy:
▪ They kept their relationship secret from their parents.
▪ agents on a secret mission
▪ secret talks with the terrorists
secret compartment/passage etc
▪ The drugs were found in a secret compartment in Campbell’s suitcase.
secret ingredient/recipe/formula
▪ The cookies are made to a secret recipe.
2. [ONLY BEFORE NOUN]
secret feelings, worries, or actions are ones that you do not want other people to know about:
▪ His secret fear was that Jenny would leave him.
▪ Did you know you had a secret admirer (=someone who is secretly in love with you)?
3. secret weapon
something that will help you gain a big advantage over your competitors, that they do not know about
4. used to describe the behaviour of someone who is keeping their thoughts, intentions, or actions hidden from other people SYN secretive
secret about
▪ They’re being very secret about it.
▪ There was a secret smile on her face.
—secretly adverb:
▪ They were secretly married.
• • •
THESAURUS
▪secret known about by only a few people, who have agreed not to tell anyone else :
▪ a secret meeting place
▪ The details of the proposal must remain secret.
▪confidential used about information, especially in business or government, that is secret and not intended to be shown or told to other people :
▪ a highly confidential report
▪ Employees’ personal details are treated as strictly confidential.
▪classified used about information that the government has ordered to be kept secret from most people :
▪ He was accused of passing on classified information to the Russians in the 1950s.
▪sensitive used about information that is kept secret because there would be problems if the wrong people knew it :
▪ A teenager managed to hack into sensitive US Air Force files.
▪covert [ONLY BEFORE NOUN]used about things that are done secretly, especially by a government or official organization :
▪ a CIA covert operation
▪undercover [USUALLY BEFORE NOUN]used about things that are done secretly by the police in order to catch criminals or find out information :
▪ Detectives arrested the suspect after a five-day undercover operation.
▪underground an underground organization or newspaper is one that operates or is produced secretly and opposes the government :
▪ Her father was a member of the underground resistance movement in France during World War II.
▪clandestine /klænˈdestən, klænˈdestɪn/ secret and often illegal or immoral :
▪ clandestine meetings
▪ his involvement in a clandestine operation to sell arms to Iran
▪ a clandestine love affair
▪hush-hush informal used about information or activities that are kept officially secret :
▪ He was put in charge of some hush-hush military project.
▪ I’ve no idea what he does – it’s all very hush-hush.
COLLOCATIONS CHECK
▪confidential information/document/report/letter/inquiry
▪classified information/document/material
▪sensitive information/files
▪covert operation/support/activities/war/aid
▪undercover agent/operation/investigation/work
▪underground organization/newspaper/economy
▪clandestine meeting/operation/organization/network
▪hush-hush research/project/experiment
II. secret2 S3 W3 noun [COUNTABLE]
[Word Family: noun: secrecy, secret, secretiveness; adverb: secretly, secretively; adjective: secret, secretive; verb: secrete]
1. something that is kept hidden or that is known about by only a few people ⇨ secrecy:
▪ I can’t tell you. It’s a secret.
▪ It was no secret that the two men hated each other.
▪ Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me (=I won’t tell anyone about it).
2. in secret
in a private way or place that other people do not know about:
▪ The negotiations were conducted in secret.
3. the secret
a particular way of achieving a good result, that is the best or only way
the secret to (doing) something
▪ The secret to making good pastry is to use very cold water.
▪ Your hair always looks so great – what’s your secret?
▪ What do you think is the secret of her success?
4. make no secret of something
to make your opinions about something clear:
▪ Louise made no secret of her dislike for John.
5. the secrets of life/nature/the universe etc
the things no one yet knows about life, nature etc
• • •
COLLOCATIONS
verbs
▪have a secret
▪ We have no secrets from each other.
▪know a secret (=about someone else)
▪ You can tell Tom that I know his secret.
▪keep a secret (=not tell it to anyone)
▪ Can you keep a secret?
▪tell somebody a secret
▪ Shall I tell you a secret?
▪let somebody in on a secret (=tell them a secret)
▪ Frank let me in on the secret.
▪reveal/divulge a secret formal (=tell it to someone)
▪ He was accused of revealing state secrets.
▪give away a secret (=tell it to someone carelessly or by mistake)
▪ I had to be careful not to give away any secrets.
▪share a secret (=tell it to someone because you trust them)
▪ I trusted Alexander, so I decided to share my secret with him.
▪discover/find out a secret
▪ He was afraid that someone would discover his secret.
ADJECTIVES/NOUN + secret
▪a big secret (=an important secret or one that very few people know)
▪ The event was supposed to be a big secret, but everyone knew about it.
▪a little secret (=a personal secret that very few people know)
▪ You must promise me that this will be our little secret.
▪a closely guarded/well-kept secret (=a secret that few people are allowed to know)
▪ The recipe is a closely guarded secret.
▪an open secret (=something that a lot of people know, but do not talk about because it is supposed to be a secret)
▪ It was an open secret that he was having an affair.
▪a dark/terrible secret (=a secret about something bad)
▪ I’m sure every family has a few dark secrets.
▪a dirty secret (=a shameful secret)
▪ The exclusion of black people from the film industry is one of Hollywood’s dirty little secrets.
▪a guilty secret (=a secret that someone feels guilty about)
▪ He had finally discovered Jo’s guilty secret.
▪sb’s innermost secrets (=very private or personal secrets)
▪ She wasn’t confident enough to share her innermost secrets with him.
▪a family secret
▪ Their normally strong relationship is threatened when he has to reveal a family secret.
▪a state/official secret (=a government secret)
▪ He was accused of passing on state secrets to a foreign power.
▪a trade secret (=a company or business secret)
▪ They must not betray their employer 's trust, for instance by giving away trade secrets.
▪military secrets
▪ He was sent to prison for five years in 1933 for selling military secrets to Germany.
COMMON ERRORS
► Do not say ˈsay a secretˈ or ˈsay your secretsˈ. Say tell somebody a secret or tell somebody your secrets.
|
|
