gilded cage

Cultural  

1. To be like “a bird in a gilded cage” is to live in luxury but without freedom: “Because the movie star could not go out without being recognized and pursued, she stayed in her penthouse, living like a bird in a gilded cage.”

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gilded cage Idioms  

1. The encumbrances or limitations that often accompany material wealth, as in She had furs, jewelry, whatever money could buy, but was trapped in a gilded cage. This metaphoric expression indicating that riches cannot buy happiness was popularized (and possibly coined) in a song, “A Bird in a Gilded Cage” (1990; lyrics by Arthur J. Lamb, music by Harry von Tilzer), about a young girl marrying for wealth instead of love and paying for luxury with a life of regret.

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Example Sentences

Descriptions of Cathy’s fair skin are transmuted into a bedroom at the Linton estate, wrapped in fabric that isn’t just the pink of her flesh but also complete with subtle veins and moles, a reminder of how difficult it will be to leave her gilded cage once she accepts Edgar’s proposal.

From Salon

Thomas Frank is trapped in a gilded cage at Tottenham Hotspur, his attempts to escape hindered by yet another joyless experience and more Premier League points dropped.

From BBC

Here she sang it while standing in a glittering mermaid gown that seemed to make it impossible for her to move — some kind of metaphor for the gilded cage of a celebrity romance.

From Los Angeles Times

In transplanting this device to a hypervisible celebrity, it affords Finn the chance to play on a bigger stage, producing stylized musical numbers, backstage antics, public meltdowns, fan frenzy and private anguish in Skye’s luxury gilded cage.

From Los Angeles Times

With “Maria,” he’s got the gilded cage, but little of the bird’s desperation.

From Los Angeles Times