How to Use fig leaf in a Sentence

fig leaf

noun
  • Opponents claim that the humanitarian goals of the project are just a fig leaf, and that its real purpose is to make money.
  • The ice cream is served with fig leaf oil and whipped blood orange.
    — Amanda Shapiro, Bon Appetit, 28 Feb. 2018
  • It was swathed in a warm pear green and a cheerful fig leaf plant sat in the corner.
    — Elise Taylor, Vogue, 20 Sep. 2023
  • Aware of being stark naked, Darren moved his hands to form a fig leaf.
    — Hermione Hoby, Harper's Magazine, 22 June 2021
  • But the use of the pro-life cause as a fig leaf is especially galling to me.
    — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 8 Dec. 2017
  • Nothing passed, but Democrats at least got the fig leaf of a debate.
    — Burgess Everett, semafor.com, 30 Sep. 2025
  • But the fig leaf of the peace process and the two-state solution is drying up.
    — Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 31 Jan. 2023
  • Desert was a white chocolate and yuzu sorbet with fig leaf and hibiscus.
    — Everett Potter, Forbes, 23 Feb. 2023
  • The reception room was swathed in a warm pear green and a cheerful fig leaf plant sat in the corner.
    — Elise Taylor, Vogue, 12 July 2022
  • The gesture felt defensive, as a virtuous fig leaf on the fair’s naked avarice.
    — Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 17 May 2021
  • This recipe originally called for enveloping the fish in fig leaves.
    — Bon Appétit, Bon Appetit, 24 Apr. 2018
  • This recipe originally called for enveloping the fish in fig leaves.
    — Rochelle Bilow, Bon Appetit, 4 May 2018
  • This recipe originally called for enveloping the fish in fig leaves.
    — Ignacio Mattos, Bon Appetit, 23 Apr. 2018
  • My meal concludes with a summery fig leaf ice cream churned from Nature’s Fynd cream cheese.
    — Tamar Adler, Vogue, 26 Jan. 2023
  • In the end, the actions taken by Facebook and Twitter are a fig leaf.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 16 Oct. 2020
  • Instead there were simple round pie crusts, artfully scored with designs of apricot and fig leaves.
    — al, 7 Jan. 2020
  • Wrap each portion of fish individually in a fig leaf, folding the edges of the leaf over the fish.
    — Deb Wandell, San Francisco Chronicle, 7 Oct. 2021
  • The court’s critics on the left have often argued that this is a mere fig leaf for the conservatives’ preferred outcome.
    — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 29 June 2022
  • Likewise, the fig leaf of Arab unity and solidarity withered up and blew away years ago.
    — Ben Wedeman, CNN, 3 Dec. 2020
  • Give or take a fig leaf or two, the likely successor to the topless craze — already four years old — adds up to complete nudity.
    — Johnny Miller, San Francisco Chronicle, 19 Feb. 2018
  • Such questions are elided behind the fig leaf of Hoffman’s mysticism.
    — Ron Charles, Washington Post, 17 Aug. 2023
  • Both men and women wear a green apron embroidered with a fig leaf pattern, to represent Adam and Eve.
    — Meredith Blakestaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 5 May 2022
  • These gestures have been welcomed by Western governments, though many experts discount them as a fig leaf.
    — Heidi Blake, The New Yorker, 10 Oct. 2024
  • For Britain, though, such concerns are little more than a fig leaf to cover underlying tensions.
    — Tom McTague, The Atlantic, 11 Aug. 2020
  • New Zealand Christmas trees, fig leaf plants and paspalum grass accent the outdoor living space.
    — Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Oct. 2025
  • While this may be true, this excuse was more of a fig leaf to cover up the Army’s troubles in fielding a scout/attack helicopter.
    — Mike Hirschberg, Forbes, 1 Mar. 2024
  • This argument could now be in danger, however, because the crisis in Rome rips away her legal fig leaf.
    — Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 21 July 2022
  • And while the Armory intends to broadcast the results, some day, in a yet-to-be-determined way, the filming was a bit of a fig leaf.
    — Brian Seibert, New York Times, 22 Oct. 2020
  • At this point, the court order is something of a legal fig leaf that protects the magnet program, giving it a legal right to continue.
    — Howard Blume, latimes.com, 28 June 2019
  • Guns, for them, are not about hunting or self-defense or the frontier spirit or any of the other fig leaves that are brandished every time their true agenda starts to show.
    — Ryu Spaeth, The New Republic, 4 Aug. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fig leaf.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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