In order to know the meaning of the term at hand, it is necessary to proceed, first of all, to discover its etymological origin. In this case, we have to indicate that it is a word that derives from the verb to steal that comes from Latin, specifically from "furtum" which is synonymous with "theft" or "robbery."
The concept of stealadillas comes from theft , in turn derived from the verb steal . The term is used to construct the adverbial phrase stealthily , which refers to what is done furtively, without being noticed by others .
For example: "The boy sneaked into the kitchen and took several cookies from the jar," "The man was arrested when he was secretly filming the women changing in the locker room," "Sneaking so as not to be seen by his master." , the dog stealthily entered the bedroom and climbed onto the bed .
Whoever does something secretly tries not to be discovered . That is why actions carried out in this way are usually prohibited or generate some type of negative consequence if they come to light.
Suppose a 20-year-old boy prohibits his 12-year-old brother from entering his room. The child, aware of this command, also decides to enter the room. To avoid a reprimand, he does it secretly , with the intention of fulfilling his wish (accessing the environment in question) without his older brother noticing the intrusion.
Another clear example of this word and expression that concerns us can be found in this situation. Imagine that a teenager has been punished by his parents without going out with his friends. If he wants to skip the punishment, he can take advantage of the fact that his parents are already sleeping in his room to sneak out of the house and meet up with his gang .
In the same way, this expression that we are addressing is also used in the workplace. For example, think that in a company a worker discovers that it is carrying out an illegal act with which he does not agree and wants this to be known to society in general. In that case, you can sneak into the office where you know the documents proving that crime are located and you can steal them or take photographs of them and then report the case or pass the material to a journalist so they can publish the information.
We can also establish that if a detective is hired by a woman to discover if her husband is unfaithful, she can proceed to follow him secretly in order to obtain the evidence she needs for her client.
Take the case of two celebrities (a footballer and an actress) who start a romance and do not want the press to find out. When the woman premieres a play, her boyfriend goes to the performance, but sneaks into the room a few minutes after the start in order to go unnoticed. For this reason he chooses to withdraw moments before the end, always in a discreet way. In this way he tries to ensure that journalists do not discover his presence and cannot prove the romantic relationship.