shadow
Unofficial, informal, unauthorized, but acting as though it were.
Adjective
- Unofficial, informal, unauthorized, but acting as though it were.
- The human resources department has a shadow information technology group without headquarters knowledge.
- Having power or influence, but not widely known or recognized.
- The director has been giving shadow leadership to the other group's project to ensure its success.
- The illuminati shadow group has been pulling strings from behind the scenes.
- Part of, or related to, the opposition in government.
- Acting in a leadership role before being formally recognized.
- The shadow cabinet cannot agree on the terms of the agreement due immediately after they are sworn in.
- The insurgents’ shadow government is being crippled by the federal military strikes.
Origin
From Middle English schadowe, schadewe, schadwe (also schade > shade), from Old English sċeaduwe, sċeadwe, oblique form of sċeadu (“shadow, shade; darkness; protection”), from Proto-West Germanic *skadu, from Proto-Germanic *skaduz (“shade, shadow”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₃- (“darkness”). Doublet of shade. Cognates Cognate with Scots shedda (“shadow”), Saterland Frisian Skaad, Skade (“shade, shadow”), West Frisian skaad, skâd (“shade, shadow”), Central Franconian and Limburgish Schatte (“shadow”), Dutch schade, schaduw (“shadow”), German Schatten (“shade, shadow”), German Low German Scharr, Scharre (“shade, shadow”), Luxembourgish Schiet (“shade, shadow”), Vilamovian siota (“shadow”), Yiddish שאָטן (shotn, “shadow”), Faroese skadda (“thick wet mountain fog”), Icelandic skodda, skoddi (“shadow”), Norwegian Bokmål skodde (“fog, mist”), Norwegian Nynorsk skodde, skåddj, skåidd...
Forms
Noun
- A dark image projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object.
- My shadow lengthened as the sun began to set.
- The X-ray showed a shadow on his lung.
- The stories did not seem to me to touch life. […] They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at...
- Relative darkness, especially as caused by the interruption of light; gloom; obscurity.
- I immediately jumped into shadow as I saw them approach.
- In secret shadow from the sunny ray, / On a sweet bed of lillies softly layd. - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 32:
- Night's sable shadows from the ocean rise. - 1636 (date written), John Denham, “The Destruction of Troy, an Essay upon the Second Book of Virgils Æneis”, in Poems and Translations, with The Sophy, London: […] [John...
- An area protected by an obstacle (likened to an object blocking out sunlight).
- The mountains block the passage of rain-producing weather systems and cast a "shadow" of dryness behind them.
- A reflected image, as in a mirror or in water.
- Some there be that ſhadowes kiſſe, / Such haue but a ſhadowes bliſſe. - c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First...
- […] some dead lake That holds the shadow of a lark Hung in the shadow of a heaven […] - 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XVI”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 26:
- I was the shadow of the waxwing slain By the false azure in the windowpane; I was the smudge of ashen fluff—and I Lived on, flew on, in the reflected sky. - 1962, Charles Kinbote [pseudonym; Vladimir Nabokov], Pale...
- That which looms as though a shadow.
- Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. - , Psalm 23:1–6
- I lived in her shadow my whole life.
- Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all. - 1992, Rudolf...
- A small degree; a shade.
- He did not give even a shadow of respect to the professor.
- I don't have a shadow of doubt in my mind that my plan will succeed.
- no variableness, neither shadow of turning - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, James 1:17:
- An imperfect and faint representation.
- He came back from war the shadow of a man.
- The neopagan ritual was only a pale shadow of the ones the Greeks held thousands of years ago.
- the law having a shadow of good things to come - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Hebrews 10:1:
- A trainee, assigned to work with an experienced officer.
- One who secretly or furtively follows another.
- The constable was promoted to working as a shadow for the Royals.
- Sin and her shadow Death - 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC;...
- It was easy enough to follow the suspect, a man of thirty, more or less, rather heavy build with a peculiar motion of the hips as he strode along. Breaker and shadow, at a distance of fifty feet apart, walked for five...
- An inseparable companion.
- A drop shadow effect applied to lettering in word processors etc.
- An influence, especially a pervasive or a negative one.
- Men see the institution and worship it. It is only the lengthened shadow of one man.[…]The Reformation is the shadow of Luther: Quakerism of Fox: Methodism of Wesley: Abolition of Clarkson. - 1844, Ralph Waldo Emerson,...
Forms
Related
Derived
acoustic shadow afraid of one's own shadow antishadow backshadow backshadowing beshade beyond a shadow of a doubt beyond a shadow of doubt beyond the shadow of a doubt cast a shadow chromoshadow digital shadow enshadow eyeshadow eye shadow five o'clock shadow foreshadow foreshadowing in the shadow of job-shadow jump at one's own shadow live in the shadow of nonshadow outshadow
Verb
- To shade, cloud, or darken.
- The artist chose to shadow this corner of the painting.
- To block light or radio transmission from.
- Looks like that cloud's going to shadow us.
- To secretly or discreetly track or follow another, to keep under surveillance.
- Soon after departure, we cross the invisible border into Scotland to enjoy more stunning coastal scenery, before the line finally swings inland at Burnmouth to traverse pine-clad valleys, shadowed by the A1 trunk road...
- To represent faintly and imperfectly.
- Ah, ye admonitions and warnings! why stay ye not when ye come? But rather are ye predictions than warnings, ye shadows! - 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 36, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition,...
- To hide; to conceal.
- To accompany (a professional) during the working day, so as to learn about an occupation one intends to take up.
- In most cases, interns have mainly observed, or “shadowed,” their Hands-On hosts, but some interns have been given real tasks to perform, […] - 1980, “Study of the Career Intern Program”, in Alternative Education Models...
- I know you haven’t run a training before, but Irving will be there to shadow. Just stick to the flowchart and escalate properly depending on dialectics. You’ll be fine. - 2022 February 18, Dan Erickson, “Good News About...
- To make (an identifier, usually a variable) inaccessible by declaring another of the same name within the scope of the first.
- In this snippet, inside the for loop the a and b variables shadow variables from the outer scope, and while legal, this is almost certainly a programming error. - 2012, Mark Summerfield, Programming in Go,...
- To apply the shadowing process to (the contents of ROM).
Origin
From Middle English schadowen, from Old English sċeadwian, from sċeadu (“shadow; shade”) + -ian (suffix forming verbs).