camouflage vs whitewash

camouflage

noun
  • The act of disguising. 

  • A pattern on clothing consisting of irregularly shaped patches that are either greenish/brownish, brownish/whitish, or bluish/whitish, as used by ground combat forces. 

  • The use of natural or artificial material on personnel, objects, or tactical positions with the aim of confusing, misleading, or evading the enemy. 

  • Resemblance of an organism to its surroundings for avoiding detection. 

  • A disguise or covering up. 

  • Clothes made from camouflage fabric, for concealment in combat or hunting. 

verb
  • To hide or disguise something by covering it up or changing the way it looks. 

whitewash

noun
  • A campaign to paper over unfavorable elements. 

  • The most basic type of thickening agent, flour blended with water to make a paste. 

  • A lime and water mixture for painting walls and fences bright white. 

  • A complete victory or series of victories without suffering any losses; a clean sweep. 

verb
  • To cover over errors or bad actions. 

  • In various games, to defeat (an opponent) so that they fail to score, or to reach a certain point in the game; to skunk. 

  • To paint over with a lime and water mixture so as to brighten up a wall or fence. 

  • To make over (a person or character, a group, an event, etc) so that it is or seems more white, for example by applying makeup to a person, or by discounting the participation of people of color in an event and focusing on only white participation. 

How often have the words camouflage and whitewash occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )