Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
📝 A text explainer 🎭 A fact spinner ✨ A surface polisher
glosser

glosser

9.2
A person who makes faults or bad news sound better
  • noun
  • /ˈɡlɑːsər/
translation icon : maquillador
  • The company hired a glosser to handle negative publicity after the product recall.

Examples

  • As a skilled glosser, she made even the worst news sound positive.

  • The politician is a skilled glosser who avoids tough questions.

  • Critics accused the spokesperson of being a glosser who avoided the real issues.

  • Many glossers try to make bad news seem less severe.

  • The company hired a glosser to manage the negative press surrounding the merger.

  • During the crisis, the manager acted as a glosser, reassuring shareholders and downplaying the company’s missteps.

  • As a renowned glosser, his job was to present the layoffs in a way that minimized public concern.

Synonyms

prevaricator
vsglosser
  • Formal
1 9.9

A person who often avoids telling the truth and gives unclear answers

prefers to soften or present negatives more favorably instead of mere evasion
obscurantist
vsglosser
  • Formal
1 9.9

A person who on purpose hides facts or makes them hard to understand

aims to make negatives appear better rather than simply block all information
minimizer
vsglosser
  • US
7.3

A person who makes a problem or feeling seem less important

actively softens or hides unpleasant facts rather than only understating them
dissimulator
vsglosser
9.2

A person who hides true feelings or plans by saying things they do not mean

focuses on hiding unpleasant facts publicly rather than only masking inner feelings

How Evasive

obscurantist
  • Formal
1 9.9
glosser
9.2
minimizer
  • US
7.3

Surface Forms

glosser singular
glossers plural

Morphology

glosser = gloss (transparent) = gloss + er

Agentive formation from the verb 'gloss' (as in 'gloss over') + -er; 'one who glosses' clearly maps to someone who downplays or covers up.

Etymology

Glosser can also mean someone who makes bad news sound better. A helpful way to remember this is the phrase 'gloss over', where you 'cover up' a problem so people do not notice it, which is what a glosser does in speech or writing.