gild the lily


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gild 1

 (gĭld)
tr.v. gild·ed or gilt (gĭlt), gild·ing, gilds
1. To cover with or as if with a thin layer of gold.
2. To give an often deceptively attractive or improved appearance to.
3. Archaic To smear with blood.
Idiom:
gild the lily
1. To adorn unnecessarily something already beautiful.
2. To make superfluous additions to what is already complete.
[Middle English gilden, from Old English gyldan; see ghel- in Indo-European roots.]
gild′er n.

gild 2

 (gĭld)
n.
Variant of guild.

gild the lily

To try to beautify something that is already beautiful and needs no further adornment.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Verb1.gild the lily - adorn unnecessarily (something that is already beautiful)
paint the lily
adorn, decorate, grace, ornament, embellish, beautify - make more attractive by adding ornament, colour, etc.; "Decorate the room for the party"; "beautify yourself for the special day"
2.gild the lily - make unnecessary additions to what is already complete
paint the lily
add - make an addition (to); join or combine or unite with others; increase the quality, quantity, size or scope of; "We added two students to that dorm room"; "She added a personal note to her letter"; "Add insult to injury"; "Add some extra plates to the dinner table"
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References in periodicals archive ?
And soon after Rajiv Van La Parra made the game safe only for Tom Ince to gild the lily in the 106th minute.
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He went on a binge to gild the lily by adding that 'they (Pakistan that is) have given us nothing but lies and deceit'.
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The sense of "back" is baked into many re--words, but some people aren't satisfied and are compelled to gild the lily.
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And to gild the lily Land Rover has added its innovative Ingenium diesel engine - made in Britain at the company's new multi-million pound powertrain plant in Wolverhampton - to the range.
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I've been banging on about this for a long time now-but those who open quiet little neighborhood restaurants are under a lot of pressure to gild the lily, or as one of my friends would call it, add eklavu to their restaurants to justify their existence (and also have an excuse to jack up the prices).
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The remainder of the project should be made to fall in line with the original project cost of $250 million (AMEinfo/Marina West, February 27, 2007) and not be influenced by the developers' previous attempts to gild the lily when they claimed in the Press it was now a $700m project.
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If you want your next roofing project to come up roses, you might consider growing some up there--and if you really want to gild the lily, plant some incentive funding into the plot.
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Frankly, it is not surprising that the ambassador is trying to gild the lily and dampen down concerns that are very real.
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Rice should have been wary of a White House staff with a tendency to gild the lily, with her pal Valerie Jarrett and other staffers zealous about casting the president in a more flattering light.
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This month, it'll gild the lily with Natural Discourse, a collection of works from sculptors, architects, and poets, created in collaboration with horticulturists and spread over the 34-acre garden.
Slide into summer
Producers Max Martin and Ryan Tedder help gild the lily with beats to bolster the catchy but often anaemic tunes.
ALBUMS
Thankfully, the BBC doesn''t, and decided to gild the lily by recruiting Michaela Strachan for the new run.
FRIDAY

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