Liliputin-4227

Protestants try to explain the miraculous surviving of Catholics after their defenestration due to falling onto a dung heap, turned out to be nothing else but a failed window dressing ... "
Baron of Highfall


Liliputins. What, the heck, is this?
http://stihi.ru/2021/11/24/7101

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Defenestration (from Modern Latin fenestra) is the act of throwing someone or something out of a window. The term was coined around the time of an incident in Prague Castle in the year 1618 which became the spark that started the Thirty Years' War. This was done in "good Bohemian style", referring to the defenestration which had occurred in Prague's New Town Hall almost 200 years earlier (July 1419), which also on that occasion led to the Hussite war. The word comes from the New Latin de- (down from) and fenestra (window or opening).

By extension, the term is also used to describe the forcible or peremptory removal of an adversary.

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window dressing

NOUN
the arrangement of an attractive display in a shop window.
an adroit but superficial or actually misleading presentation of something, designed to create a favorable impression:
"the government's effort has amounted to little more than window dressing"

SIMILAR:
appearance
display
impression
ostentation
affectation
image
Translate window dressing to

German
Fenster-Dressing

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window dressing
noun
Synonyms of window dressing
1
: the display of merchandise in a retail store window
2
a
: the act or an instance of making something appear deceptively attractive or favorable
b
: something used to create a deceptively favorable or attractive impression
window-dress
winddres
 transitive verb
window dresser noun


Synonyms
facade
gloss
veneer

Example Sentences
These changes are being made for a good reason. They're not just window dressing.
the crime-does-not-pay moralizing is just window dressing for nasty hard-boiled stories
Recent Examples on the Web
At quick glance, Sharon’s production has the appearance of window dressing; the action ultimately unfolds in a conventional way.
—Joshua Barone, New York Times, 20 Sep. 2022
The question now is whether all the measures are anything more than window dressing.
—Scott Johnson, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Oct. 2022
Released just before the 2004 election, this collection took protest songs and sucked all the vitality out of them, leaving behind bare vibes that don’t even suffice as liberal window dressing.
—Andy O'connor, SPIN, 14 Sep. 2022
See More
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'window dressing.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.


Word History
First Known Use
1850, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of window dressing was in 1850
See more words from the same year

Dictionary Entries Near window dressing
window display

window dressing

windowed


Cite this Entry
Style

MLA
“Window dressing.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/window. Accessed 18 Mar. 2023.

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Count von Thurn turned to both Martinice and Slavata and said, "You are enemies of us and of our religion, have desired to deprive us of our Letter of Majesty, have horribly plagued your Protestant subjects ... and have tried to force them to adopt your religion against their wills or have had them expelled for this reason." Then to the crowd of Protestants, he continued, "Were we to keep these men alive, then we would lose the Letter of Majesty and our religion ... for there can be no justice to be gained from or by them". Shortly thereafter, the two regents and their secretary were defenestrated, but they survived the 70-foot (21-metre) fall from the third floor. Catholics maintained the men were saved by angels or by the intercession of the Virgin Mary, who caught them; later Protestant pamphleteers asserted that they survived due to falling onto a dung heap, a story unknown to contemporaries and probably coined in response to divine intervention claims. Philip Fabricius was later ennobled by the emperor and granted the title Baron von Hohenfall (literally "Baron of Highfall").