hush up
Definition
- Verb (transitive):
- To cause someone or something to become quiet; to suppress speech or noise.
- To conceal or cover up a misdeed, fault, or embarrassing fact; to prevent information from becoming public knowledge.
Usage and Examples
To cause silence:
- The teacher had to hush up the excited class before the principal entered.
- He managed to hush up the barking dog with a treat.
To conceal information:
- The company tried to hush up the scandal to protect its reputation.
- They paid money to hush up the details of the accident.
Advanced Usage
- Often used in contexts involving authority, secrecy, or scandal.
- Can imply an intentional, and sometimes unethical, effort to keep something secret.
Variants and Related Words
- Hush (verb): To make or become quiet. (e.g., )
- Cover up (verb phrase): A close synonym for the "conceal" meaning of .
- Suppress (verb): To prevent something from being revealed or expressed.
Synonyms
- Silence (verb): To cause to be quiet.
- Conceal: To keep something secret.
- Quiet: To make quiet.
- Whitewash: To gloss over or cover up faults.
Related Phrasal Verbs / Constructions
- Hush up does not have common phrasal verb variants beyond its standard two-word form. It functions as a single semantic unit.
Related Idioms
- Sweep something under the rug: Similar to the "conceal" meaning, implying hiding a problem to avoid dealing with it.
- The government was accused of sweeping the report under the rug.
Verb
-
cause to be quiet or not talk
-
Please silence the children in the church!
-
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cover up a misdemeanor, fault, or error
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Let's not whitewash the crimes of Stalin
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She tried to gloss over her mistakes
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