Word.ws English Dictionary

gilding the pill

gilding the pill is the present participle and gerund of gild the pill.

Meaning of gild the pill

Verb

gild the pill (third-person singular simple present gilds the pill, present participle gilding the pill, simple past and past participle gilded the pill)

  1. Synonym of sugarcoat the pill.
    • For he who'd make his fellow-creatures wise / Should always gild the philosophic pill!1888, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, The Yeomen of the Guard […] , London: Chappel & Co., […], published c. 1911, page 17

Questions about gilding the pill

What is gilding the pill the present participle and gerund of?
Gilding the pill is the present participle and gerund of gild the pill.

Words near gilding the pill in the dictionary

  1. gildhalls
  2. gilding
  3. gilding metal
  4. gilding metals
  5. gilding the lily
  6. gilding the pill
  7. gildings
  8. Gildner
  9. Gildners
  10. Gildon
  11. Gildonic

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gilding the pill (page history and authors); gild the pill (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.

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