What's the difference between furtive and sneak?

Furtive


Definition:

  • (a.) Stolen; obtained or characterized by stealth; sly; secret; stealthy; as, a furtive look.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The judge said Tamir was given “little if any time” to respond to any commands from the officers, that his arms were not raised, and that he made no “furtive movement”.
  • (2) Turnbull later shrugged off the concern as there was nothing furtive about the deal, and noted it was reported by Australian media.
  • (3) Back then the town’s Kurdish character was furtive and suppressed.
  • (4) For the 30 years I have followed Spurs to away games – in pubs, around tube stations, on the streets around the ground and within Stamford Bridge itself, the venom, ignorance and breathtaking casualness of Chelsea fans’ references to Jews, Auschwitz, the Holocaust and foreskins, often accompanied by a hissing simulation of gas chambers, is simply shocking – not least because it goes unchallenged by police, stewards or the club itself, bar a token reference furtively hidden away in the match-day programme.
  • (5) The page name could have been better translated to "freedoms on the quiet", since the word "yavashaki" [furtive in Persian] also incorporates the word "yavash" meaning gently.
  • (6) Part-timers, meanwhile, are envied for having one foot in the playground and one in the office, but worry secretly about failing to keep up with either of them: skidding late into the school pick-up, still furtively sending emails on our phones.
  • (7) Abroad, he had perhaps been best known for his furtive motorcycle tryst with his actor lover, Julie Gayet, and his messy, public breakup with his First Lady, Valérie Trierweiler.
  • (8) Nearby, guards waited furtively at the entrance to the Islamic mourning tent for Sheikh Alman al-Shijah, blown apart last Friday by a bomb placed under his car.
  • (9) A small crowd grows larger, and furtive comments become denunciations as anger pours forth against Nkunda's National Congress for People's Defence.
  • (10) As I was talking his hand started creeping over my leg in a really furtive way.
  • (11) I had always loved writing the book: from the first furtive soundings of disaffected employees of Big Pharma in London, to forages among the industry’s white chimneys of Basel, and finally to the tribal villages of Kenya, where young mothers who could barely read were being bamboozled into signing “consent forms” that made guinea pigs of their own children.
  • (12) He said French troops had come up against "furtive firing" and had briefly fired back, but he said these exchanges had now stopped.
  • (13) The total number present on the island has been extremely difficult to determine due to the rugged terrain and the furtiveness of the monkeys.
  • (14) In his documentation of this furtive Islam , Degiorgis has also highlighted the ways in which a community under siege becomes resilient and collectively defiant in the face of creeping oppression.
  • (15) A politically feeble Japan, that once imperial Asian power, shelters furtively behind its US-made anti-missile batteries.
  • (16) By 1971, about 100 deserters were living furtively in a district of Saigon nicknamed "Soul Alley", beside Tan Son Nhut airport.
  • (17) All the druidic mumbo-jumbo about the Elevating Principle and the Straight Line reminds me of stuff I furtively read in my father's books on freemasonry.
  • (18) And given that the net effectively lowered what one might call the "shame threshold" (instead of having to sneak furtively into a "specialist" shop, punters could view from the comfort and privacy of their own homes), the internet undoubtedly expanded the market for commercial porn.
  • (19) Though he often shrank snail-like into stay-at-home furtiveness, the town that made him - Salem, Massachusetts - (as any visitor can still see) faces the dark, windy ocean, and it was this Hawthorne would stare at when he worked in its Custom House from 1846-49.
  • (20) When they do, it is in a slightly furtive way, almost in whispers.

Sneak


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To creep or steal (away or about) privately; to come or go meanly, as a person afraid or ashamed to be seen; as, to sneak away from company.
  • (imp. & p. p.) To act in a stealthy and cowardly manner; to behave with meanness and servility; to crouch.
  • (v. t.) To hide, esp. in a mean or cowardly manner.
  • (n.) A mean, sneaking fellow.
  • (n.) A ball bowled so as to roll along the ground; -- called also grub.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) They’ve already collaborated with folks like DOOM, Ghostface Killah and Frank Ocean; I was lucky enough to hear a sneak peek of their incredible collaboration with Future Islands’ Sam Herring from their forthcoming album.
  • (2) In a sneak preview of the findings, Howard Reed of Landman Economics, who was commissioned to do the work, told a meeting this week that "most of the gain" from raising the income tax allowance goes to "families who aren't very poor in the first place", and instead increasing tax credits for working low-income families was the "best targeted way of encouraging work among lone parents and workless couples".
  • (3) Robben's penalty was so well placed that it sneaked in despite Casillas's guessing right and almost reaching his own post.
  • (4) The French love Malick's artistry and mystery and he continued to play the recluse by not showing up for his press conference or red carpet, although I'm told he has been here, staying at the famed Colombe d'Or in St-Paul-de-Vence and that he did sneak in to watch at least some of his own film's premiere.
  • (5) They systematically denied the boy meals and tortured him when he tried to sneak food before brutally beating him to death at their Coventry home.
  • (6) MPs have voted to allow fracking under Britain’s national parks, drawing accusations that the government has sneaked the measure through parliament without a proper debate.
  • (7) Sneaking a 1-0 win (like they did last time) probably won't be enough, because Chile would still fancy their chances in the final game against the Netherlands, who will more than likely be through already by that stage.
  • (8) The row between the BBC and LSE broke on Saturday when the university accused the corporation of deception and of using its students as human shields to sneak into North Korea.
  • (9) Beijing has lodged a formal complaint with Pyongyang after a North Korean army deserter sneaked across the border and killed four Chinese villagers with a handgun.
  • (10) 1.28am BST Heat 15-20 Spurs, 3:53 remaining in 1st quarter Tony Parker sneaks through two defenders to untie it.
  • (11) Only PCs running Windows can be infected but the CryptoLocker malware can be hidden in any executable attachment or sneak on to your computer via a driveby download from a disreputable or infected website.
  • (12) Yeah, as I said, come back from the dead.” I have managed to get my hands on some of the correspondence that’s been going back and forth, and can give you a sneak preview of the ideas.
  • (13) 16) St Louis Rams Last season: 7-8-1 Needs: Wide receiver, safety, running back, defensive tackle Pick: Tavon Austin, wide receiver, West Virginia Undersized at 5ft 8½in, Austin is nevertheless the best receiver in this year's draft, a jet-heeled playmaker who could well sneak into the top 10.
  • (14) At least director JJ Abrams had a sense of humour about the hype machine when he teased a "sneak peek" of a scanty three frames of Star Trek Into Darkness on Conan O'Brien.
  • (15) In the past, he explains, 'encroachers' failed to respect the park's boundaries, sneaking into the forest to gather firewood and fell trees for timber.
  • (16) Experimental evidence documents the roles of host immunosuppression (genetic or environmental), immunoresistance at the cellular level, "sneaking through" (i.e., growth of a tumor to irreversible size prior to the mobilization of an appropriate immune response), lack of antigenic recognition, and blocking enhancement type reactions.
  • (17) The bars will be easiest to cut after being chilled (but there's no shame in sneaking a few bites when they are warm).
  • (18) Meanwhile, here's Justin Kavanagh with a sneak preview of activities in the Real dressing room during the break: "Word has it that the Special One has left a note in the Real dressing room that reads GONE TO GET MY HAIR DONE.
  • (19) North Korea prefers sneak attacks, like the torpedo in March 2010 that sank the South Korean navy ship Cheonan : 46 died.
  • (20) I go out as often as I can, at least once a month if possible, and I keep a "go bag" in the boot of my car ready with all my camping gear on standby should I get the chance to sneak off.