smoke and mirrors

Definition of smoke and mirrors

: something intended to disguise or draw attention away from an often embarrassing or unpleasant issue —usually hyphenated when used attributively

Examples of smoke and mirrors in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Admittedly, narrow preview builds mean devs could still be fooling us with some smoke and mirrors—this is E3, land of unfinished games—but all of the below demos presented well enough at E3 to pass our sniff test for hype and BS. — Sam Machkovech And Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, "The best games, demos, and tech of E3 2019," 14 June 2019 Championship glory has nothing to do with digital smoke and mirrors. — latimes.com, "Letters: Death of Tyler Skaggs is a huge loss for the Angels," 5 July 2019 The secret to the longevity of the British monarchy is a quite brilliant smoke and mirrors combination of evolution and stability. — Juliet Rieden, Town & Country, "How Queen Elizabeth Will Pass the Torch to Prince Charles and the Rest of the Royal Family in 2019," 5 Jan. 2019 There are zero smoke and mirrors involved with your donation. — Jesa Marie Calaor, Allure, "9 Beauty Products Supporting 2018's Breast Cancer Awareness Month (and How Much They're Donating)," 11 Oct. 2018 Somehow the smoke and mirrors of Jen's Facebook feed successfully fooled even those closest to her. — Glamour, "Broken Harts, Episode 1: Fear," 4 Dec. 2018 This all appears to be smoke and mirrors for the boring truth: that Middleton and Markle are your standard sisters-in-law. — Christopher Rosa, Glamour, "Breaking Down All the Rumors About Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton's Royal 'Feud'," 27 Nov. 2018 One reason to believe it’s not totally smoke and mirrors is that the head of the battery division of Fisker Inc. was the cofounder of Sakti3, a battery company that’s spent the last decade working at developing solid-state batteries. — Sean O'kane, The Verge, "Electric cars could use another big battery breakthrough — this CEO says he’s got it," 16 Aug. 2018 And perhaps more chilling, the smoke and mirrors of a compelling digital narrative clouded our sense of civic responsibility. — Lauren Smiley, Glamour, "Two White Moms. Six Black Kids. One Unthinkable Tragedy. A Look Inside the ‘Perfect’ Hart Family," 6 Sep. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'smoke and mirrors.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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The first known use of smoke and mirrors was in 1979

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