red herring

concealment; hiding; occultation, mystification., seal of secrecy; screen; disguise; masquerade; masked battery; hiding place; cryptography, steganography; freemasonry., stealth, stealthiness; obreption; slyness (cunning)., latitancy, latitation; seclusion; privacy, secrecy, secretness; incognita., reticence; reserve; mental reserve, reservation; arriere pensee, suppression, evasion, white lie, misprision; silence (taciturnity); suppression of truth; underhand dealing; closeness, secretiveness; mystery., latency; snake in the grass; secret; stowaway.

conceal, hide, secrete, put out of sight; lock up, seal up, bottle up., cover, screen, cloak, veil, shroud; cover up one's tracks; screen from sight, screen from observation; drawing the veil; draw the curtain, close the curtain; curtain, shade, eclipse, throw a view over; be cloud, be mask; mask, disguise; ensconce, muffle, smother; befog; whisper., keep from; keep back, keep to oneself; keep snug, keep close, keep secret, keep dark; bury; sink, suppress; keep from, keep from out of view, keep from out of sight; keep in the shade, throw into the shade, throw into background; stifle, hush up, smother, withhold, reserve; fence with a question; ignore., keep a secret, keep one's own counsel; hold one's tongue (silence) [more]; make no sign, not let it go further; not breathe a word, not breathe a syllable about; not let the right hand know what the left is doing; hide one's light under a bushel, bury one's talent in a napkin., keep in the dark, leave in the dark, keep in the ignorance; blind, blind the eyes; blindfold, hoodwink, mystify; puzzle (render uncertain); bamboozle (deceive)., be concealed; suffer an eclipse; retire from sight, couch; hide oneself; lie hid, lie in perdu, lie in close; lie in ambush; seclude oneself; lurk, sneak, skulk, slink, prowl; steal into, steal out of, steal by, steal along; play at bopeep, play at hide and seek; hide in holes and corners; still hunt.

concealed; hidden; secret, recondite, mystic, cabalistic, occult, dark; cryptic, cryptical; private, privy, in petto, auricular, clandestine, close, inviolate; tortuous., behind a screen; undercover, under an eclipse; in ambush, in hiding, in disguise; in a cloud, in a fog, in a mist, in a haze, in a dark corner; in the shade, in the dark; clouded, wrapt in clouds; invisible; buried, underground, perdu; secluded., undisclosed, untold [more]; covert (latent); mysterious (unintelligible)., irrevealable, inviolable; confidential; esoteric; not to be spoken of., obreptitious, furtive, stealthy, feline; skulking; surreptitious, underhand, hole and corner; sly (cunning). [more]; secretive, evasive; reserved, reticent, uncommunicative, buttoned up; close, close as wax; taciturn.

secretly; in secret, in private, in one's sleeve, in holes and corners; in the dark, jnuis clausiss, with closed doors, a huis clos; hugger mugger, a la derobee; under the cloak of, under the rose, under the table; sub rosa, en tapinois, in the background, aside, on the sly, with bated breath, sotto voce, in a whisper, without beat of drum, a la sourdine., behind the veil; beyond mortal ken, beyond the grave, beyond the veil; hid from mortal vision; into the eternal secret, into the realms supersensible, into the supreme mystery., in confidence, in strict confidence, in strictest confidence; confidentially; between ourselves, between you and me; entre nous, inter nos, under the seal of secrecy; a couvert., underhand, by stealth, like a thief in the night; stealthily; behind the scenes, behind the curtain, behind one's back, behind a screen [more]; incognito; in camera.

pretext, pretense, pretension, plea; allegation, advocation; ostensible motive, subterfuge, obtensible ground, obtensible reason, phony reason; excuse (vindication); color; gloss, guise, cover., loophole, starting hole; how to creep out of, salvo, come off; way of escape., handle, peg to hang on, room, locus standi; stalking-horse, cheval de bataille, cue., pretense (untruth); put off, dust thrown in the eyes; blind; moonshine; mere pretext, shallow pretext; lame excuse, lame apology; tub to a whale; false plea, sour grapes; makeshift, shift, white lie; special pleading (sophistry); soft sawder (flattery).

pretend, plead, allege; shelter oneself under the plea of; excuse (vindicate); lend a color to; furnish a handle; make a pretext of, make a handle of; use as a plea; take one's stand upon, make capital out of , pretend (lie) [more].

ostensibly (manifest); alleged, apologetic; pretended.

ostensibly; under color; under the plea, under the pretense of, under the guise of.