Word.ws English Dictionary

papering over

papering over is the present participle and gerund of paper over.

Meaning of paper over

Verb

paper over (third-person singular simple present papers over, present participle papering over, simple past and past participle papered over)

  1. (figuratively, transitive) To superficially hide or disguise (a problem or a defect) without addressing it; to provide a veneer of normality or success.
    • Runaway lending continues, bad debts mount even higher, and the need for more cash to paper over losses becomes that much more acute.2014, Patric Chovanec, at Bloomberg, China's Runaway Train is Running Out of Track

Noun

papering over (uncountable)

  1. The superficial disguising of a defect

Questions about papering over

What does papering over mean?
Papering over means the superficial disguising of a defect.
What is papering over the present participle and gerund of?
Papering over is the present participle and gerund of paper over.
What part of speech is papering over?
Papering over is a noun.

Words near papering over in the dictionary

  1. paperhangings
  2. paperhood
  3. paperily
  4. paperiness
  5. papering
  6. papering over
  7. papering the house
  8. paperings
  9. paperish
  10. paperknife
  11. paperknives

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: papering over (page history and authors); paper over (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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