gild the lily
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Try to improve what is already beautiful.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Norman Fowler who, as is customary, devoted the first part of his reply to saying something nice about the speakers (' Amaranth Wilikins does not need me to gild her lily.
Are we er are we, you know, gilding the lily?
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “gild the lily” mean?
Try to improve what is already beautiful.
Is “gild the lily” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.