0 secretly or unexpectedly and without being seen --
We know from experience in this country that undemocratic agencies can accumulate powers unobtrusively—like a thief in the night.
That little affair with monetarism lasted a few short years and then passed like a thief in the night.
If the war comes upon you suddenly, like a thief in the night, conscription or no conscription, you will have no plans ready at all.
That is an entirely new principle and it is introduced like a thief in the night.
It may come—as these things do come—like a thief in the night.
It would come like a thief in the night.
This crisis, however, came on us almost immediately, like a thief in the night, and we could not possibly take the necessary precautions.
Democracy took charge like a thief in the night.
