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sugarcoat

[shoo g-er-koht]
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verb (used with object)
  1. to cover with sugar: to sugarcoat a pill.
  2. to make (something difficult or distasteful) appear more pleasant or acceptable: There was no way to sugarcoat the bad news.
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Origin of sugarcoat

First recorded in 1865–70; sugar + coat
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for sugar-coat

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • He really understood how to sugar-coat poison as well as any man of his stamp could.

  • You understand very well, too, how to sugar-coat the most bitter pills.

  • They sugar-coat unpleasant truths, and are natural diplomats.

    How to Read Human Nature

    William Walker Atkinson

  • He did not sugar-coat enough the bitter truth which he was telling to the nation.

    William Lloyd Garrison

    Archibald H. Grimke

  • It prompts us to sugar-coat the sins which our forefathers swallowed in the rough; that is all.

British Dictionary definitions for sugar-coat

sugar-coat

verb (tr)
  1. to coat or cover with sugar
  2. to cause to appear more attractive; make agreeable
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for sugar-coat

sugarcoat

v.

also sugar-coat, 1870, originally of medicine; figuratively, "make more palatable," from 1910. Related: Sugarcoated; sugarcoating.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper