cover story
Americannoun
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a magazine article highlighted by an illustration on the cover.
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a fabricated story used to conceal a true purpose; alibi.
No one believed the cover story released to the press.
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A featured story in a magazine that concerns the illustration on the cover, as in The earthquake is this week's cover story for all the news magazines . [Mid-1900s]
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A false story intended to mislead or deceive; also, an alibi. For example, Their cover story while investigating local repair services was that they had just bought the house and were having problems, or The suspect gave the police some cover story about being held up . [Mid-1900s]
Etymology
Origin of cover story
First recorded in 1945–50
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In a GQ cover story this summer,, external Kelce said his football "might have slipped a little bit because I did have a little bit more focus in trying to set myself up".
From BBC
Within a month of his acquisition, it was the subject of a cover story in Fortune titled, “The Comeuppance of Carl Icahn.”
From Los Angeles Times
"I made up a cover story, moved away and didn't look back," she told the court.
From BBC
But you cannot simply ask the subject of your cover story what has made her the current cinema’s rawest nerve.
From Los Angeles Times
Reckzeh had been set up as a spy and agent provocateur by the Gestapo: Thadden had been fooled by his elaborately constructed cover story.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
