gloss over
verb1
Idiomatic To cover up a mistake or a crime; to hush up or whitewash.
- They glossed over the problem, hoping that the customers wouldn't notice.
- Plausibility, I know, can only be unmasked by shewing the absurdities it glosses over, and the simple truths it involves with specious errors.1790, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men:
2
Idiomatic To treat something with less care than it in some ways deserves; to ignore, or at least to discount or dismiss for the current purposes.
- This book only glosses over quantum mechanics; it doesn't go into detail.
- "I am afraid that we are trespassing," said the doctor, awkward between his promise to the girl and the necessity of glossing over the situation. "My friend is interested in antiquities—"1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC:
- Related terms
- glaze over, make light of