smokescreen of success
- noun
:
cortina de humo del éxito
- Behind the smokescreen of success, the team was struggling with internal conflicts and missed deadlines.
Examples
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The awards and ceremonies acted as a smokescreen of success, masking deeper problems within the corporation.
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The CEO's public announcements created a smokescreen of success that fooled most investors.
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The smokescreen of success fooled many experienced investors.
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Many investors fell for the smokescreen of success created by the CEO.
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The CEO's public announcements created a smokescreen of success that fooled most investors.
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Behind the smokescreen of success, the team was struggling with internal conflicts and missed deadlines.
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The awards and ceremonies acted as a smokescreen of success, masking deeper problems within the corporation.
Synonyms
129
5.9
A way of acting that hides how a person really feels
19
7.4
Actions that hide the truth by making things look better
9
7.1
An action or statement that hides the real reason behind something
8
6.8
A false appearance that hides someone's true feelings or plans
6
4.3
A trick that makes something look like real magic
5
5.1
An action or statement used to hide the real reason and distract people
4
6.8
An attempt to hide bad facts to make something seem better
1
8.3
A short sign of hope that later proves disappointing
Antonyms
How Misleading
Surface Forms
Morphology
smokescreen + of + success
The compound 'smokescreen' already denotes a deliberate cover or distraction, and adding 'of success' straightforwardly specifies that the apparent achievement is being used to obscure the true situation. This follows a regular noun + of + noun compositional pattern, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words can predict the intended meaning.
Etymology
The expression smokescreen of success comes from the image of a smokescreen, a cloud of smoke that hides people, with success used as a cover. So, it means 'a false show of success that hides the real problems'.