the art, act, or technique of trimming the display windows of a store.
misrepresentation of something, so as to give a favorable impression.
The company's list of assets included a great deal of window dressing.
the ornamentation of shop windows, designed to attract customers
the pleasant, showy, or false aspect of an idea, policy, etc, which is stressed to conceal the real or unpleasant nature; façade
First recorded in 1780–90
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"All this window dressing isn't for us," lamented Sima, echoing a joke that went viral on social media:
From Barron's ● Jul. 4, 2026
Major League Baseball’s official app, long one of my favorites, has gradually surrounded baseball scores and video with window dressing that has made the app feel heavier.
From Slate ● Jun. 10, 2026
“I think that irrational exuberance that we saw in the dot com era … is just window dressing to cloak what, to me, is normalizing an addictive behavior in our society,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● May 19, 2026
In “Undertone,” all of the horror tropes are window dressing — elements to stimulate the eye while Tuason plays with the ear.
From Salon ● Mar. 15, 2026
I was window dressing in case someone came by.
From "Amal Unbound" by Aisha Saeed
Or is that just grandiose window-dressing for an A.I. company leading several other A.I. companies to IPOs?
From Slate ● Jun. 12, 2026
The law enforcement push, which analysts have criticised as window-dressing, nabbed its biggest player with the January arrest of Chinese-born tycoon Chen Zhi, who was extradited to China.
From Barron's ● Mar. 11, 2026
“The Wiz” is treated as a commodity, its challenges draped over with comic window-dressing and “American Idol”-style grandstanding.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 15, 2024
"The EU is, after all, ramping up requirements that say 'presence' is not simply window-dressing."
From Reuters ● Aug. 23, 2023
He came to this Shelter intermittently, and supported himself by an occasional job of window-dressing.
From Regeneration by Haggard, Henry Rider
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.
