gild the lily
/ˈɡɪld ðə ˈlɪli/
gild the lily verb: to embellish or improve something unnecessarily.
Verb
gild the lily (third-person singular simple present gilds the lily, present participle gilding the lily, simple past and past participle gilded the lily)
- To embellish or improve something unnecessarily.
- Synonyms:
- go overboard, overegg, over-egg the pudding
- To add superfluous attributes to something.
- Poor Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, so maligned for her imaginative pictures of Lovere and Lake Iseo, may surely be forgiven for having gilded the lily, for adding an extra touch of romance where the romantic already so abounded1908, Edith Wharton, A Motor-Flight through France, Chapter 11
Synonyms of gild the lily
Forms of gild the lily
| third-person singular present | gilds the lily |
|---|---|
| present participle | gilding the lily |
| past participle | gilded the lily |
| past | gilded the lily |
Origin of gild the lily
A common misquotation of a line from William Shakespeare's play King John.
Questions about gild the lily
- What does gild the lily mean?
- Gild the lily means to embellish or improve something unnecessarily.
- What part of speech is gild the lily?
- Gild the lily is a verb.
- How do you pronounce gild the lily?
- Gild the lily is pronounced /ˈɡɪld ðə ˈlɪli/.
- What is the past tense of gild the lily?
- The past tense of gild the lily is gilded the lily.
Words near gild the lily in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gild the lily (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-gild the lily.ogg, en-au-gild the lily.ogg.
Cite this entry: “gild the lily.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gild_the_lily. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.