| a pretentiously showy or imposing façade intended to mask or divert attention from an embarrassing or shabby fact or condition. |
| Potemkin village n. Something that appears elaborate and impressive but in actual fact lacks substance: "the Potemkin village of this country's borrowed prosperity" (Lewis H. Lapham). [After Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin, who had elaborate fake villages constructed for Catherine the Great's tours of the Ukraine and the Crimea.] |