Something used to hide the truth or distract from what's really happening, or literally smoke used to hide military movements.
Compound of 'smoke' and 'screen.' Military term from early 20th century referring to actual smoke used to obscure enemy vision; evolved to metaphorical meaning.
Navajo Code Talkers in WWII used their language as a human smokescreen—the enemy couldn't decode messages because the cipher was an unwritten language, not a written code.
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