window dressing

noun

1

: the display of merchandise in a retail store window

2

a

: the act or an instance of making something appear deceptively attractive or favorable

b

: something used to create a deceptively favorable or attractive impression

window-dress

ˈwin-dō-ˌdres 

transitive verb

window dresser noun

Synonyms

• facade
• façade

Examples of window dressing in a Sentence

These changes are being made for a good reason. They're not just window dressing.

the crime-does-not-pay moralizing is just window dressing for nasty hard-boiled stories

Recent Examples on the Web

The social codes of bloodless brutality cloaked in plausible deniability aren’t window dressing. —Elle Carroll, Vulture, 11 Aug. 2025

Flagrant violations across diverse policy realms suggested that the order’s commitment to the rule of law was rhetorical window dressing. —Stacie E. Goddard, Foreign Affairs, 28 July 2025

In that sense, the whole contrivance is mainly window dressing and not a feet-to-the-fire consideration. —Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 12 July 2025

When the system does not, these concepts are nothing better than window dressing. —Vibhas Ratanjee, Forbes.com, 7 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1850, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for window dressing

• acquiescing
• coalescing
• convalescing
• dispossessing
• prepossessing
• reassessing
• accessing
• addressing
• assessing
• caressing
• compressing
• confessing