smokescreen

• smoke screen

From smoke +‎ screen.

• Audio (US)

  (file)

smokescreen (plural smokescreens)

1. Smoke used as a disguise, mask or cover, as of troops in battle.
   • 1951, Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Chapter 25, Part 5, p. 284,

     Ensign Whitely began to tell of the surprise encounter of Admiral Sprague’s escort-carrier force with the main battle line of the Japanese Navy off Samar, in a chaos of rain squalls and smoke screens.

2. (figuratively) Anything used metaphorically to conceal or distract.

   All that talk is just a smokescreen to disguise the fact that he has nothing to say.

   • 1968, Desmond Bagley, The Vivero Letter, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Chapter 8, p. 163,

     It was all very plausible and, as he poured out his smokescreen of words, I became fidgety for fear Fallon would be too direct with him.

• smoke test