gild the lily

1. 1.

   adorn unnecessarily (something that is already beautiful)

   Synonymspaint the lily

   Broaderdecorate
2. 2.

   make unnecessary additions to what is already complete

   Synonymspaint the lily

   Broaderadd

Questions about gild the lily

What does gild the lily mean?

gild the lily means "adorn unnecessarily (something that is already beautiful)". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for gild the lily?

Close synonyms include paint the lily, paint the lily. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is gild the lily a common word?

gild the lily is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.