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gild
1[ gild ]
verb (used with object)
- to coat with gold, gold leaf, or a gold-colored substance.
- to give a bright, pleasing, or specious aspect to.
- Archaic. to make red, as with blood.
gild
2[ gild ]
noun
gild
1/ ɡɪ /
verb
- to cover with or as if with gold
- gild the lily
- to adorn unnecessarily something already beautiful
- to praise someone inordinately
- to give a falsely attractive or valuable appearance to
- archaic.to smear with blood
gild
2/ ɡɪ /
noun
- a variant spelling of guild
Derived Forms
- ˈ, noun
- ˈ, noun
Other 51Թ Forms
- a· adjective
51Թ History and Origins
51Թ History and Origins
Origin of gild1
Idioms and Phrases
- gild the lily, to add unnecessary ornamentation, a special feature, etc., in an attempt to improve something that is already complete, satisfactory, or ideal:
After that wonderful meal, serving a fancy dessert would be gilding the lily.
Example Sentences
I’m struck by your reference there to how this kind of post-Reconstruction, gilded, social Darwinist era kind of paved the road for fascism to come later.
Then he tried to gild the lily by saying the Great Depression would have never happened if there had been tariffs at the time.
He repeatedly shouted that Trump has "no mandate to cut Medicaid" while pointing his gilded cane toward the podium.
His other premier work is a classic man-on-a-horse — the gilded equestrian statue of William Tecumseh Sherman, victorious Union Army general, standing in front of the Plaza Hotel at an entrance to New York’s Central Park.
Or will we be turned off by the opulence of the gilded golfing life enjoyed by the biggest stars?
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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