Cover up means to hide or hush up something (a mistake, the truth, a scandal) or to cover something so it can't be seen: a scar, a stain, a tattoo. In the first meaning, the tone is almost always disapproving: people hide what they're ashamed of. Cover up for someone means to protect someone by hiding what they did wrong.
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cover up + mistake/truth/scandal; cover it up; cover up for + person; cover up + scar/tattoo; a cover-up (noun)
- The manager tried to cover up the mistake, but the client spotted it in the invoice.
- She wore a scarf to cover up the scar on her neck.
- The newspaper accused the city council of a cover-up.
What changed
First versionCan you cover up for me on Friday? I have a doctor's appointment.
RevisionCan you cover for me on Friday? I have a doctor's appointment.
Taking someone's place at work and hiding their wrongdoing are two different phrases in English. Taking someone's place is cover for someone, while cover up for someone means hiding what they did wrong. The extra up was removed, and the request became harmless.
Cover without up simply means to put something over something else: cover the bowl with a towel. Cover up means to cover something completely so it can't be seen, or to keep something secret. That's where the noun cover-up, with a hyphen, comes from: an attempt to hush something up, a government cover-up.
Your turn
The company knew the cars were unsafe but tried to ___ the problem instead of fixing it.
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cover up — The company isn't fixing the problem but hiding it, so cover up. Cover for means to take someone's place, and it doesn't go with the problem.
Retell the plot of a film, series or news story where someone tried to hide the truth. Say what was hidden and how it came out.
In the series, the mayor tried to cover up a car accident, but a journalist found the CCTV footage and published it.
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