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Gild the Lily

To embellish or fabricate something that is already pretty and in a good condition

Etymology:

  • The expression was used by Shakespeare in the play King John as “to gild refined gold, to paint the lily… is wasteful and ridiculous excess”. After many years the expression was shortened just stating “Gild the lily”. The word “Gild” means to cover or coat something with gold. It is noticing that why lily was used by Shakespeare? As Lily is an already a beautiful flower, if we will give it a gold covering to make it look more beautiful, it would be unnecessary.
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The room is already well decorated; there is no need to put this portrait here as it is gilding the lily.

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Submitted on February 25, 2019

Additional definitions for 'Gild the Lily':

gild the lilyTo embellish or improve something unnecessarily; to add superfluous attributes to something.
gild the lilyadd unnecessary ornamentation
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Nearby phrases

Some more phrases from our dictionary similar to Gild the Lily

gild the pilllily-liveredlily-livered

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