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cover tracks
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Related to cover tracks: Cover songs
cover (one's) tracks (up)
1. Literally, to conceal one's footprints, typically to avoid being followed.
Those hounds can track us across rivers, so covering our tracks won't do any good.
2. To conceal the evidence of one's (usually nefarious) actions.
We need to cover our tracks before someone traces the bank robbery back to us.
I destroyed those incriminating documents to cover my tracks up.
See also: cover, track
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
cover someone's tracks (up)
to conceal one's trail; to conceal one's past activities. She was able to cover her tracks up so that they couldn't pin the charges on her. It's easy to cover up your tracks when the investigators botch their job. The robber failed to cover his tracks.
See also: cover, track
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
cover (one's) tracks
To conceal traces so as to elude pursuers.
See also: cover, track
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
See also:
cover (one's) tracks (up)
cover one's tracks
cover your tracks
track up
make tracks for (some place or thing)
make tracks, to
make tracks
paper over the cracks
lead a double life
a smokescreen

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