verb
to give a speciously fine appearance to what is erroneous, base, or evil
did not try to conceal or palliate his errors
Synonyms: blanch (over), extenuate, gloss (over), gloze (over), prettify, sugarcoat, varnish, veneer, white, whiten, whitewash
Related Word: alleviate, lighten, mitigate; condone, excuse; moderate, qualify, soften, temper; camouflage, cloak, conceal, cover up, disguise, dissemble, mask; hush (up)
Idioms: paper over the cracks, put a good face on ( or upon)