cloak-and-daggery en · NOUN
Etymology
cloak-and-dagger + -y
Meanings
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(uncountable) Espionage, secrecy.
[Richard] Moore's climb to the pinnacle of British cloak-and-daggery is a measure of the curious intimacy that sits alongside the ancient enmities that have often described Anglo-Irish relations.
2025 August 15, Philip Stephens, “Ireland’s ‘British question’”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1: