sweep something under the carpet: what does that mean?

Today's expressions has two different meanings. The literal one and the figurative one. Let's start with the literal one. When you sweep something like dirt under your carpet, you hide it by brushing it away under the edge of the carpet. That's plain and simple. But the meaning we're more interested in today is the figurative one. Let's get to know it better!

Imagine you're in a project and you made a very big mistake. You just don't want to talk about it in front of your classmates. You'd rather sweep it under the carpet. What does that mean? When you sweep something embarrassing like a mistake or a problem under the carpet, you don't want to deal with it, you want to hide it from other people. There are many reasons you may want to do that. Maybe you're ashamed of it or you just won't admit the mistake. So you just sweep it under the carpet and avoid dealing with it. That's it for today. Talk to you next time!