From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtrade secretˌtrade ˈsecret noun [countable] 1 BBTSECRETa piece of secret information about a particular business, that is only known by the people who work there The Coca-Cola formula is a well-kept trade secret.2 informalSECRET a piece of information about how to do or make something, that you do not want other people to know Could you give me the recipe for that ‘coq au vin’ or is it a trade secret?
Examples from the Corpus
trade secret• "What's the recipe?" "Sorry, that's a trade secret."• There are strict laws against revealing trade secrets. 