smokescreen
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See also: smoke screen
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
smokescreen (plural smokescreens)
- Smoke used as a disguise, mask or cover, as of troops in battle.
- 1951, Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Chapter 25, Part 5, p. 284:
- Ensign Whitely began to tell of the surprise encounter of Admiral Sprague’s escort-carrier force with the main battle line of the Japanese Navy off Samar, in a chaos of rain squalls and smoke screens.
- 1959 September, “Talking of Trains”, in Trains Illustrated, page 401, photo caption:
- C.I.E. Class "D14" 4-4-0 No. 89 covers its tracks with a magnificent smokescreen as it pulls out of Dun Laoghaire with the 9.0 a.m. boat train for Dublin.
- (figuratively) Anything used metaphorically to conceal or distract.
- All that talk is just a smokescreen to disguise the fact that he has nothing to say.
- 1968, Desmond Bagley, chapter 8, in The Vivero Letter, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, page 163:
- It was all very plausible and, as he poured out his smokescreen of words, I became fidgety for fear Fallon would be too direct with him.
Translations
smoke used as a disguise, mask or cover
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anything used (metaphorically) to conceal or distract
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