- to gild refined gold, to paint the lily
- Meaning
Usually misquoted as 'to gild the lily'.OriginFrom Shakespeare's King John.
Meaning and origin of phrases. 2013.
to gild refined gold, to paint the lily
Look at other dictionaries:
gild the lily — The passage from Shakespeare’s King John is: To gild refined gold, to paint the lily ... Is wasteful and ridiculous excess. Thus it is both wrong and hackneyed to speak of gilding the lily in the sense of overdoing something … Bryson’s dictionary for writers and editors
gild the lily — The passage from Shakespeare s King John is To gild refined gold, to paint the lily. . ./Is wasteful and ridiculous excess. Thus it is both wrong and resorting to a woeful cliche to speak of gilding the lily in the sense of overdoing something … Dictionary of troublesome word
gild the lily — verb 1. adorn unnecessarily (something that is already beautiful) • Syn: ↑paint the lily • Hypernyms: ↑decorate, ↑adorn, ↑grace, ↑ornament, ↑embellish, ↑beautify … Useful english dictionary
gild the lily — meaning ‘to try to improve what is already as beautiful as it can be’, is a not quite accurate quotation from Shakespeare, King John iv.ii.11: To gilde refined Gold, to paint the Lilly; To throw a perfume on the Violet, [etc.] … Modern English usage
gild — I. /gɪld / (say gild) verb (t) (gilded or gilt, gilding) 1. to coat with gold, gold leaf, or gold coloured substance. 2. to give a bright, pleasing, or specious aspect to. 3. Obsolete to make red, as with blood. –phrase …
gild — to tell a lie about Literally, to cover thinly with gold, and perhaps alluding to that misquoted cliché gild the lily Shakespeare actually wrote to gild refined gold, to paint the lily {King John). In phrases such as gild the facts,… … How not to say what you mean: A dictionary of euphemisms
lily — /ˈlɪli / (say lilee) noun (plural lilies) 1. any plant of the genus Lilium, comprising scaly bulbed herbs with showy funnel shaped or bell shaped flowers of various colours, as L. tigrinum, tiger lily, and L. longiflorum, November lily. 2. the… …
List of misquotations — A famous misquotation is a well known phrase attributed to someone who either did not actually say it in that form of words, or did not say it at all. It may not be known how these phrases came about, but when possible, their type of origin is… … Wikipedia
misquotations — Many catchphrases and allusive expressions are based on altered forms of literary quotations. The proverb Every dog has his day is based on a 16c adage translated from the Dutch humanist Erasmus (1500) and was given currency by a line spoken by… … Modern English usage
gilded — 1560s (late O.E. had gegylde); in modern use the more dignified pp. of GILD (Cf. gild) (q.v.). Shakespeare s lilies were never gilded; the quote ( King John, iv.2) is, To gild refined gold, to paint the lily … Etymology dictionary
