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

See Examples For:

gilded cage

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 ● Aug. 6, 2025

Before the speech, his allies had said he was craving interaction with people outside the gilded cage of the White House.

From New York Times ● Mar. 8, 2024

Living in the White House, he said, is “a little like a gilded cage in terms of being able to walk outside and do things.”

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 12, 2023

"I feel really sorry for them, because in many ways they're born into a gilded cage that has isolated them from reality," he told the BBC in 2015.

From BBC ● May 3, 2022

It was altogether pleasant, but I never forgot that it was a gilded cage.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela