paper over

British  

verb

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

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paper over Idioms  

1. 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.

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Example Sentences

That extends a rally in bonds that has clipped more than 30 basis points, or hundredths of a percentage point, from the yield on the benchmark paper over the past month.

From Barron's • Feb. 27, 2026

O'Neill just about managed to paper over the cracks of a club that has badly lost its way but all those fractures are so obvious now.

From BBC • Dec. 14, 2025

Toner-Rodgers continued to work on the paper over the summer.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 22, 2025

It’s not like those good manners and contrived niceties ever managed to paper over those divisions in the first place.

From Slate • Nov. 19, 2025

He edges through the compartments, his duffel bag heavy with books for his Renaissance architecture class, for which he has to write a paper over the next five days.

From "The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri