sweep something under the rug

English

Pronunciation

  • (file)

Verb

sweep something under the rug (third-person singular simple present sweeps something under the rug, present participle sweeping something under the rug, simple past and past participle swept something under the rug)

  1. (idiomatic) To conceal a problem, (usually embarrassing or illegal) expediently, rather than remedy it thoroughly.
    • 2011 March 7, Brooks Barnes, Bill Carter, Michael Cieply, “Sheen Is Surrounded by a Coterie of Enablers”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
      “One of the problems with the entertainment industry is that, to protect the image of these people, they try to deal with the problem by sweeping it under the rug,” said John T. Schwarzlose, chief executive of the Betty Ford Center, the licensed addiction hospital in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Synonyms

Translations

See also

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.