window dressing

Definitions

1. 1

   The decorative display of retail merchandise in store windows

   The decorative display of retail merchandise in store windows; the goods and trimmings used in such a display.

   • […] a shop where a shingle could be had for two shillings in the same building as a coffin-maker’s who worked in oak, elm or lead: no window-dressing but one child’s coffin dusty with disuse and the list of hairdressing prices.
   • On Sundays when the Red Light District is closed until 6 P.M., many Dutch families use the window dressings as the textbook for their children’s sex education.
2. 2

   The process, skill or task of creating such a display.

   • Such days as there was no window-dressing there was a mighty carrying and lifting of blocks and bales of goods into piles and stacks.
   • Down in the village Ras Beebe began his twice-a-year window dressing, removing the caps, candy, sweaters, oil heaters, patent medicines and mittens to substitute bathing suits, candy, straw hats, toy shovels, patent medicines and caps.
3. 3

   A means of creating a deceptively favourable impression of something or someone

   A means of creating a deceptively favourable impression of something or someone; something for appearance only.

   • These latest modifications are mere window dressing; the same problems remain.
   • Meanwhile, the left is deliberately running more ethnically diverse candidates in the parliamentary elections next year, claiming Sarkozy's one-time "rainbow" cabinet of racially diverse women had turned out to be window dressing.

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