gild the lily

1. To adorn unnecessarily something that is already beautiful or perfect: “Morty had us all believing his tall tale until he couldn't resist gilding the lily.”

Idioms and Phrases

Add unnecessary adornment or supposed improvement. For example, Offering three different desserts after that elaborate meal would be gilding the lily. This expression is a condensation of Shakespeare's metaphor in King John (4:2): “To gild refined gold, to paint the lily ... is wasteful and ridiculous excess.” [c. 1800]

Example Sentences

Not many of us had “Jeffrey Epstein” or “Ghislaine Maxwell” on our bingo cards — to mix metaphors while gilding the lily.

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Most supermarket hams are already fully cooked, which means your job isn’t to roast so much as to gild the lily.

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Then he tried to gild the lily by saying the Great Depression would have never happened if there had been tariffs at the time.

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But in a way, all the giveaways and special events are just gilding the lily.

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So here’s my Nana’s original no-frills recipe, without any fuss, any tweaks or anything to gild the lily.

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