secret approval
- noun
:
aprobación secreta
- By keeping silent, the officials gave their secret approval to the illegal activities.
Examples
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The manager gave his secret approval for the project.
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Even without direct orders, employees took the supervisor's nod as secret approval of their actions.
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The manager's secret approval of the scheme allowed unethical practices to continue.
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Did the board grant secret approval for the merger?
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The committee gave its secret approval for the project, even though it hadn't been officially announced.
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She acted under the secret approval of her boss, who knew about the plan but remained silent.
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The plan moved forward with secret approval from influential members, despite public opposition.
Synonyms
2
9.9
Secret help that allows someone to do something illegal
1
7.7
People show silent approval by not objecting
Antonyms
How Explicit
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'secret' (kept hidden) modifies 'approval' (consent), so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to approval given privately or unspoken. This is a straightforward adjective+noun combination with no idiomatic shift and is cross-linguistically common, so it is immediately understandable to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Secret approval paints the image of a quiet nod or a stamp slid under a table. The word secret shows it is hidden and approval is a sign of 'permission', so the phrase means private, unspoken 'consent' that can let wrong actions continue.