state secret

plural state secrets · alternative State secret

1. Information which pertains to the affairs of a country, access to which is restricted by the government.

   "Your brother," he continued, "in his travels on the Continent stumbled by chance upon a State secret of international importance."

   1905, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 5, in A Maker of History

   3 more examples

   I'll tell you one great State secret: the Queen, sensible how much she was governed by the late Ministry, runs a little into t'other extreme, and is jealous in that point.

   1711, The Journal to Stella, Jonathan Swift, ch. 2: Letter 16

   [T]here are another set of rascals prowling about the docks, chiefly at dusk, who make strange motions to you, and beckon you to one side, as if they had some state secret to disclose, intimately connected with the weal of the commonwealth.

   1849, Herman Melville, chapter 40, in Redburn: His First Voyage. […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC

   Zimbabwean prosecutors have charged four men including top figures from President Robert Mugabe's party with selling state secrets to foreign agents.

   2005 January 1, Stella Mapenzauswa, “Four face spy charges as Zimbabwe powerplay heats up”, in Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, retrieved 21 Sep 2010

2. broadlyhumorousPersonal information which someone would like to keep private, even if ultimately not important.

plural State secrets

1. alternativeAlternative form of state secret.