make pigs and whistles of
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to spoil or ruin something by adding too many unnecessary features
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Làm hỏng điều gì đó bằng cách thêm quá nhiều tính năng không cần thiết
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: create pigs and whistles
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The new updates made pigs and whistles of the simple app
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “make pigs and whistles of” mean?
to spoil or ruin something by adding too many unnecessary features Literally: create pigs and whistles
Is “make pigs and whistles of” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.