as in to excuse
to talk about or describe (something) in a way that makes it seem more pleasant or acceptable than it is
textbooks that sugarcoat history She has very strong opinions, and she doesn't try to sugarcoat them.
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Recent Examples of sugarcoat
Johnson, who has been perhaps the most vocal critic of the emerging package, did not sugarcoat his feelings after emerging from a meeting of the Senate GOP conference held to brief members on the bill.
—
Al Weaver, The Hill, 17 June 2025
This Ride Isn’t Smooth There’s no way to sugarcoat it: Lululemon has experienced dramatic declines during market corrections.
—Trefis Team, Forbes.com, 8 June 2025
Refusing to sugarcoat Tityrus’s experience of our fetid and worn-out world, Wiese uncovers the daily pathos and absurdities of contemporary life.
—Diana Arterian
june 5, Literary Hub, 5 June 2025
The director never sugarcoats life in the Big Apple for Lu, his family, nor for the rest of the striving migrant underclass.
—Jordan Mintzer, HollywoodReporter, 27 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for sugarcoat
Al Weaver, The Hill, 17 June 2025
This Ride Isn’t Smooth There’s no way to sugarcoat it: Lululemon has experienced dramatic declines during market corrections.
—Trefis Team, Forbes.com, 8 June 2025
Refusing to sugarcoat Tityrus’s experience of our fetid and worn-out world, Wiese uncovers the daily pathos and absurdities of contemporary life.
—Diana Arterian
june 5, Literary Hub, 5 June 2025
The director never sugarcoats life in the Big Apple for Lu, his family, nor for the rest of the striving migrant underclass.
—Jordan Mintzer, HollywoodReporter, 27 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for sugarcoat
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sugarcoat
Verb
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None of that, however, excuses the silly and juvenile behavior of the Assembly’s majority Democrats last week when the chamber took up a resolution commemorating Pride month.—
Mark Barabak,
Mercury News,
3 July 2025
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Students who cannot get to school and have bus stops are on a list provided by district officials can get absences excused Thursday and Friday.—
Killian Baarlaer,
The Courier-Journal,
2 July 2025
Verb
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Democratic politicos are scrambling to explain away the results or find palliative measures.—
Paul du Quenoy,
MSNBC Newsweek,
10 July 2025
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If Hollywood is to be believed, life as a Catholic priest at the turn of the 20th century involved spending 75 percent of your time sitting in your office while people brought troubled women to you and asked you to determine if all of their problems could be explained away by demonic possession.—
Christian Zilko,
IndieWire,
4 June 2025
Verb
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That argument can help rationalize the Islanders’ decision to make this trade in the first place, with Matthew Schaefer incoming.—
Shayna Goldman,
New York Times,
10 July 2025
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Yet, instead of universal outrage, attempts to justify this atrocity have already begun — as if these cold-blooded murders can somehow be rationalized by events in Gaza thousands of miles away.—
Laurence Milstein,
Sun Sentinel,
4 June 2025
Verb
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If the Tripadvisor business was the company’s only segment, this valuation could be justified.—
Kenneth Squire,
CNBC,
12 July 2025
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What event could possibly justify closing a major highway for days on end?—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
12 July 2025
Verb
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Another royal source explained that layoffs were inevitable for the former royal family members.—
Lissete Lanuza Sáenz,
StyleCaster,
13 July 2025
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The woman explained the extensive interviewing process as well as her concerns with pursuing the opportunity on the community forum Mumsnet.—
Brian Anthony Hernandez,
People.com,
13 July 2025
Verb
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Finch, who has lived in the neighborhood for 20 years, first as a renter and later as the owner of a unit in a brownstone, sought to bring out the industrial history buried under all that bland, whitewashed drywall.—
Wendy Goodman,
Curbed,
1 July 2025
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Notably, there has been no effort to whitewash the native Hawaiian characters either through their visual or spoken characteristics (Carrere and Jason Scott Lee, who plays Nani’s surfer friend David, actually hail from the Aloha State).—
Michael Rechtshaffen,
HollywoodReporter,
22 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Sugarcoat.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sugarcoat. Accessed 19 Jul. 2025.
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