whited sepulcher
- noun
- /ˈwaɪtɪd ˈsɛpəlkər/
- Offensive
:
hipócrita
- The Catholic fascination with dead saints (and pieces thereof) reminds me of the comment in the Bible about "whited sepulchers"; nice and clean on the outside, and all filth and corruption within.
Examples
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But Mrs. Hobley's a proper whited sepulcher, I'll give you my word.
-
The church leader was described as a whited sepulcher because he preached virtue while secretly engaging in unethical behavior.
-
Many politicians are often labeled as whited sepulchers for their public facade of honesty while engaging in corrupt practices behind closed doors.
-
He seemed to be a charitable person, but it turned out he was just a whited sepulcher hiding his true selfish motives.
Synonyms
150
5.6
A person who says they have good morals but does not follow them
1
8.5
A person who pretends to be a friend but secretly works against others
A person who pretends to be moral but is not
A person who acts innocent to avoid blame or get support
Antonyms
How Hypocritical
- Offensive
- Offensive
150
5.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
whited + sepulcher
Literally the phrase names a 'tomb made white' (whited + sepulcher), but the idiomatic sense 'a hypocrite' relies on a biblical/metaphorical extension that is not predictable from the parts alone. The wording is archaic and culturally specific, so an average B1 learner who knows the constituent words would not infer the moral/hypocrisy meaning without prior exposure.
Etymology
The phrase whited sepulcher comes from a Bible image of a sepulcher that was whitewashed on the outside to look clean while inside it was full of dead bones. So, whited sepulcher means someone who 'pretends to be good' — they look fine on the outside but are bad or corrupt inside.