hidden agenda

hidden agenda

A secret goal or an ulterior motive. I didn't trust Julie when she started being really nice to me out of the blue. It felt like she had a hidden agenda. I'm starting to wonder if the boss has a hidden agenda because he promised me the job but now he won't return my calls.
See also: agenda, hidden
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

(a) hidden agenda

Fig. a secret plan; a concealed plan; a plan disguised as a plan with another purpose. I am sure that the chairman has a hidden agenda. I never did trust him anyway.
See also: agenda, hidden
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

a hidden agenda

COMMON If someone has a hidden agenda, they are secretly trying to achieve something while they appear to be doing something else. The unions fear these tactics are part of a hidden agenda to reduce pay and conditions throughout the company. The hidden agenda of the Government's prison privatisation policy seems to have been exposed. Note: An agenda is a list of things that need to be dealt with, for example at a meeting.
See also: agenda, hidden
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

a hidden agenda

a person's real but concealed aims and intentions.
1993 New Scientist I hear that the physics community is fearful the government has a hidden agenda and intends eventually to close the Daresbury Laboratory.
See also: agenda, hidden
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • a hidden agenda
  • (one's) game
  • appear to
  • a change of heart
  • a mystery to (one)
  • a plain Jane
  • a voice in the wilderness
  • (lone) voice in the wilderness
  • be in low spirits
  • a fish out of water
References in periodicals archive
"Our hidden agenda is also to leave our national identity behind.
Community initiative aims to capture imagination of the world
It always amazes me when people like Alan Sears, head of the Religious Right's Alliance Defense Fund, cite "our nation's Founders" in support of their opposition to church-state separation ("The Alliance Defense Fund's Hidden Agenda," June 2004 Church & State).
Questions for Alan Sears
As a matter of fact, in the rounds of the WTO, as in the negotiations for an FTAA, Rosas asserts, lies a hidden agenda: protectionism for developed countries.
Buck-naked Emperors in Cancun
There is a hidden agenda there; this is religion trying not to look like it is.
Big space/little space. (Letters to the Editor)
Has he a hidden agenda to destroy this vital service by manning the fire engines with foreign crews, on inferior pay, putting thecrews under a flag of convenience (possibly registered in Iraq)?
Under fire
Certainly, the hidden agenda of anti-vice law is as much political as it is moral.
Fun City Confidential
Nault insists that he is trying to correct the Indian Act, a very flawed document, and there is no hidden agenda.
Financial Institution Act in the works: (new law will create the First Nation Taxation Commission)
He accuses Premiership refs of having a "hidden agenda" in rejecting spot kick appeals by his side.
FOOTBALL: GORD RAGE AT REFS; `We go bananas as they escape from stress'
In politics, much ado about relatively little almost always suggests a hidden agenda. In this case, that agenda--the virtual destruction of one of the New Deal's most significant and enduring contributions to our political economy--is far more dangerous than any distant shortfall.
What Social Security crisis?
Foucault's notion of the hidden agenda, according to which the proclaimed goals of prison enthusiasts only served to mask their "real" motive of building an efficient engine of power, is shown to be of limited value.
The Emancipation of Prisoners: A Socio-Historical Analysis of the Dutch Prison Experience
Toward the hidden agenda of art, As with horizons, its details and reasons Growing fainter as we pass into distance, The rules governing logic and aesthetics Go to war over territory, the country of Our limbs and poverties, and also our riches.
Logic & aesthetics
Another novel research twist, launched by Joli Kelleher at Texas, consists of examining whether individuals who have a hidden agenda in dealing with another person receive an empathic lift.
Catching mind readers in the act; researchers get a feel for empathy's ups and downs
The hidden agenda is pushed by national security policy-makers.
A man, a plan, a canal, a hidden agenda
Bishop Masin accused the federal government of an alliance with the killer Herdsmen, saying that, 'if indeed there is no hidden agenda, why has the government failed to adequately protect us?
CAN Nationwide protest: Buhari urged to restructure security apparatus
Movement leader says no hidden agenda behind campaign
'Political parties to attend PTM's April 8 rally'