paper over


verb
  1. (tr, adverb) to conceal (something controversial or unpleasant)

Words Nearby paper over

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

How to use paper over in a sentence

  • Place a piece of buttered paper over the dish, and bake in a moderate oven till it is tender, basting it frequently.

    Dressed Game and Poultry la Mode | Harriet A. de Salis
  • This in his own paper over his own signature was a body blow; but it had the effect of curing his cold.

  • They left the room, and Miss Laura sat turning the sheet of paper over and over, with a kind of horror in her face.

    Beautiful Joe | Marshall Saunders

Other Idioms and Phrases with paper over

paper over

Also, paper over the cracks. Repair superficially, conceal, especially flaws. For example, He used some accounting gimmicks to paper over a deficit, or It was hardly a perfect settlement, but they decided to paper over the cracks. The German statesman Otto von Bismarck first used this analogy in a letter in 1865, and the first recorded example in English, in 1910, referred to it. The allusion is to covering cracked plaster with wallpaper, thereby improving its appearance but not the underlying defect.

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.