Word.ws English Dictionary

under the carpet

under the carpet prepositional phrase: so as to be hidden from plain view (and thus easily ignored or overlooked).

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) So as to be hidden from plain view (and thus easily ignored or overlooked).
    • to sweep (something) under the carpet
    • But in the 1970s the process went into reverse, as more and more 'bad' data went under the carpet.1989, Walter Joyce, Hillel Ticktin, Stephen White, Gorbachev and Gorbachevism, page 58
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see under, carpet.
    • When the carpet layers came in and removed the carpet she said there were millions of black eggs and tiny worms crawling under the carpet.2005, Devi S. Nambudripad, Freedom from Environmental Sensitivities, page 35
    Synonyms:
    under the rug

Examples of under the carpet in a sentence

  • It seems as if it is happening and it is being washed under the carpet.1999 June 30, Kenya National Assembly Official Record (Hansard), page 1119:
  • The Bill is going to apply to a much wider group of people and I think it will sweep an awful lot of things under the carpet.2006, Joint Committee on Human Rights, The UN Convention Against Torture (UNCAT): Nineteenth Report of Session 2005-06: Volume II: Oral And...
  • Worldwide nuclear proliferation committed by a single nation to create an Islamic nuclear bomb has been swept under the carpet by the United States.2009, B. Vithal Shetty, World as Seen Under the Lens of a Scientist, page 233:
  • But in practice Afghanistan is being swept under the carpet.2023 March 9, Dan Jarvis, “Britain promised to move heaven and earth for all who helped us in Afghanistan. It wasn’t true”, in The...

Synonyms of under the carpet

Questions about under the carpet

What does under the carpet mean?
Under the carpet means so as to be hidden from plain view (and thus easily ignored or overlooked).
How do you use under the carpet in a sentence?
It seems as if it is happening and it is being washed under the carpet.
What part of speech is under the carpet?
Under the carpet is a prepositional phrase.

Words near under the carpet in the dictionary

  1. under someone's roof
  2. under square
  3. under the auspices of
  4. under the bootheel of
  5. under the breath
  6. under the carpet
  7. under the cosh
  8. under the counter
  9. under the covers
  10. under the fist of
  11. under the gun

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: under the carpet (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-under the carpet.ogg.

Cite this entry: “under the carpet.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/under_the_carpet. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.