欲盖弥彰

yù gài mí zhāng

trying to hide it only draws attention to it

Character by character

欲yù
want

盖gài
cover

弥mí
all the more

彰zhāng
show

他越解释越乱，反倒有点欲盖弥彰了。

The more he explained, the worse it got; the cover-up only drew more attention.

Tone: negative (criticism).

From 《左传》. It fits many online stand-ins: a disguise everyone can decode only points at the word.

Learn this in Lesson 111 · HSK 7–9: 绕着说 (Talking around it online)

A dialogue, a reading, word cards with audio and a drill that uses it, in Learn Chinese with Bao. The first lessons of every level are free.