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.

Gild the lily — meaning, 2 senses and 1 synonym

verb

2 sensesAn action, occurrence or state of being.

1.
adorn unnecessarily (something that is already beautiful)
Synonymspaint the lily
Broaderdecorate
2.
make unnecessary additions to what is already complete
Synonymspaint the lily
Broaderadd

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gild the lily

verb

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