window dressing

noun

1. the art, act, or technique of trimming the display windows of a store.
2. misrepresentation of something, so as to give a favorable impression:

   The company's list of assets included a great deal of window dressing.

window-dressing

noun

1. the ornamentation of shop windows, designed to attract customers
2. the pleasant, showy, or false aspect of an idea, policy, etc, which is stressed to conceal the real or unpleasant nature; façade

Word History and Origins

Origin of window dressing¹

First recorded in 1780–90

Example Sentences

The city tried addressing that by hosting community workshops to collect input in October 2019 – but with ahead of a December Council hearing, it struck many as window dressing, not a genuine opportunity to provide feedback.

From Voice of San Diego

Of course, there’s a chance this could all be window dressing given how often brand purpose tends to look like propaganda.

From Digiday

It’s pulp—very good pulp—and its modest achievement is making heroes out of characters too often reduced to window dressing.

From Time

One thing we’ve observed is that a remarkable amount of video is just audio with window dressing.

From TechCrunch

To her it was just empty window dressing that would do little practical good for Lou.

From The Daily Beast

But as enjoyable as this sort of literary trainspotting can be, I also consider it window dressing.

From The Daily Beast

And it was in the same decade that the idea of window dressing as a career first intrigued Hoey.

From The Daily Beast

Netanyahu's party primaries denied him centrist window-dressing (i.e., Dan Meridor).

From The Daily Beast

The action scenes, to me, just seem like macho window dressing around this central source of paranoia.

From The Daily Beast

I realize that the question was window-dressing, but my answer is quite serious.

From Project Gutenberg

Perhaps those disks are only window dressing, and they can work without them.

From Project Gutenberg

But he was determined to run on the platform, and for him, he later said, a platform was not a window dressing.

From Project Gutenberg

On window-dressing days he was up and down the street half the morning.

From Project Gutenberg

This present show of examining them was what he called legal window-dressing.

From Project Gutenberg