cover up

hide someone's mistake or wrong action from others

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What does "cover sb up" mean?

To cover up a mistake or wrongdoing means to deliberately hide it so that others cannot find out what really happened. It implies an active, intentional effort — destroying evidence, telling lies, or constructing false narratives — rather than simply staying quiet. The phrase carries a strong moral weight: if you describe someone as covering something up, you are suggesting they knew they had done wrong and chose deception over honesty. It is especially common in journalistic, political, and legal contexts, where institutions or powerful individuals are accused of concealing misconduct from the public. Note that the strength of this accusation means using it casually about minor oversights can sound far more serious than intended.

Examples

How to use it

cover up + wrongdoing/scandal/truth

The most common pattern — the object is the thing being concealed, typically a mistake, crime, or damaging truth.

The executive tried to cover up the financial losses before the audit.

cover + pronoun + up

When the object is a pronoun, it must go between the verb and the particle — the two parts cannot stay together.

They knew about the error but decided to cover it up rather than report it.

cover up + the fact that + clause

Used when the concealed information is spelled out in full — the particle stays close to the verb before the long noun phrase.

The agency spent months trying to cover up the fact that it had ignored early warnings.

be covered up

The passive is natural and frequent, especially in journalism when the person responsible is unknown or unnamed.

The data breach was covered up for nearly a year before a whistleblower came forward.

try to / attempt to / help + cover up

The verb frequently appears in infinitive constructions, especially after verbs like try, attempt, or help.

Several senior managers allegedly helped cover up the safety violations.

Common Collocations

cover up a scandalcover up the truthcover up a mistakecover up evidencecover up corruptioncover up a crime

Common Mistakes

Pronoun placement

When the object is a pronoun like 'it' or 'them', it must go between 'cover' and 'up'. Placing the pronoun after 'up' is always wrong.

✗ They tried to cover up it before anyone noticed.
✓ They tried to cover it up before anyone noticed.
Confusing 'cover up' with 'cover for'

'Cover up' takes the wrongdoing or damaging information as its object. 'Cover for' takes a person as its object and means to protect someone from blame — a different action with a different structure.

✗ His colleagues covered up him when the investigation began.
✓ His colleagues covered for him when the investigation began. / His colleagues covered up his mistake when the investigation began.
Using it for minor, innocent oversights

'Cover up' strongly implies deliberate, morally serious concealment. Using it about a trivial mistake — forgetting to reply to an email, for example — sounds disproportionately accusatory and unnatural.

✗ She covered up the fact that she forgot to book the meeting room.
✓ She covered up the fact that the company had been overcharging clients for years.

Usage

This phrasal verb is neutral in register and common in both spoken and written English, but it is especially frequent in journalism and politics. The related noun 'cover-up' (with a hyphen) is also very useful to know (e.g. 'It was a government cover-up').

Frequently Asked Questions

Can 'cover up' be used without an object?

Occasionally, yes — if the thing being concealed is already clear from context, you can say something like 'They knew but tried to cover up.' However, this is much less common than the transitive form with an explicit object. In most situations, you should include the thing being hidden as the object.

What kinds of things can be 'covered up'?

The object is always something communicative or reputational — a scandal, a crime, a mistake, evidence, the truth, or damaging information. It is never a physical object. If someone is wrapping a wound or pulling a blanket over themselves, that is a different, unrelated sense of 'cover up'.

Is 'cover-up' related to this phrasal verb?

Yes — 'cover-up' (noun, hyphenated) is directly derived from this phrasal verb and means the act or process of hiding wrongdoing. It is extremely common in headlines and political discourse, as in 'a government cover-up' or 'an alleged cover-up'. Knowing both forms is very useful at this level.

Does 'cover up' always imply that the person doing it is guilty of something?

Not necessarily — someone might cover up another person's wrongdoing without having committed it themselves. But the verb always implies knowledge of something wrong and a deliberate choice to hide it, so it is inherently accusatory toward whoever is doing the covering up.

Is 'cover up' more common in British or American English?

It is widely used in both varieties with no significant difference in meaning or frequency. You will find it in news reporting, political commentary, and everyday spoken English on both sides of the Atlantic.

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