smoke screen, n.
an action intended to conceal or confuse or obscure
<noun.act>
smoke screen smokescreen
sample sentences
"requesting new powers of surveillance is just a smokescreen to hide their failures"
semantic pointers
hypernym
(military) screen consisting of a cloud of smoke that obscures movements
<noun.artifact>
smoke screen smokescreen
semantic pointers
hypernym
domain of synset (topic)