window dressing

as in facade
a deceptively attractive external appearance the crime-does-not-pay moralizing is just window dressing for nasty hard-boiled stories

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Examples of window dressing in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web That one-percenter healthy living also comes with its fair share of window dressing. Deborah Vankin, Los Angeles Times, 8 Aug. 2024 Racist and antisemitic rhetoric and conspiracy theories spread by National Rally candidates came under scrutiny during the campaign sprint — and amplified questions about whether the party’s rebranding was merely window dressing. Anthony Faiola, Washington Post, 30 June 2024 But the code has no enforcement mechanism, leading critics to deride it as largely window dressing. Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News, 14 June 2024 But the window dressing of new legal codes and electoral procedures sought to obscure a reality that was far from democratic. Renad Mansour, Foreign Affairs, 20 Mar. 2023 See all Example Sentences for window dressing 

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'window dressing.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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“Window dressing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/window%20dressing. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.

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