to cover for
156
4.4
- phrasal verb
- /ˈkʌvər fɔr/
- Informal
:
encubrir a
- Thanks for covering for me.
What I think is so interesting about the Trump Organization is they always cover for Donald Trump.
- What I think is so interesting about the Trump Organization is they always cover for Donald Trump.
- And that's a way when they're in more sophisticated circles that they can cover for their racist, cruel default setting.
- So you can see how he may be at the Emanuensis insistence to, you know, cover for this, you know, poorly presented letter.
- So covering for somebody else and taking on that punishment would be an example, right?
- There's all kinds of institutions that cover for people that don't, that do evil onto the world, to do sinful things after the world.
- I'm not interested in running cover for real villains or pretending that there aren't people who are blocking progress and the good in this country.
- The implications, briefly, are that the Church cannot cover for priests, that the office is not greater than the man.
- And yeah, so I guess that's really all I wanted to cover for those of you who had always wondered.
- And B says anything that sets Putin off to the point that he can't virtue signal cover for it.
Examples
-
Baby, would you cover for me tonight?
-
Cover for me, will you?
-
Will you cover for me?
-
And can you cover for us for just a little longer?
-
You just go and I'll cover for you.
-
I thought I was supposed to be covering for you.
Fiction book (1993) -
I'll find someone to cover for you in the ER.
Fiction book (1991) -
I would have covered for her too, if I'd known, and if she'd wanted it that way.
Fiction book (1995) -
We covered for you.
-
She had to cover for her friend when he missed an important meeting.
Synonyms
314
3.7
To hide something so people cannot see or find out about it
178
2.5
Try to explain a mistake to make it seem less serious
12
6.0
To hide bad facts to make something seem better
To make up a false reason to avoid blame
Antonyms
How Protective
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'to provide an excuse or alibi' is related to the verb 'cover' (to hide or protect) combined with 'for' (on behalf of), so learners who know the concealing sense of 'cover' could infer it. However, 'cover' is highly polysemous (e.g. 'to substitute for' vs 'to conceal'), so an average B1 learner who only knows the substituting sense may not predict the idiomatic alibi meaning without exposure.
Etymology
Cover for comes from the picture of putting a cover over a person or their actions to hide them. So, to cover for someone means 'to provide an excuse' or 'hide someone from blame', like keeping their mistake out of sight.