gild the lily
idiom

- to adorn unnecessarily something already beautiful

- to attempt vain improvements on something that is already excellent or perfect

Collins Dictionary, Merriam-Webster

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PHRASE ORIGIN

The phrase “gild the lily” originates from a misquotation of William Shakespeare’s play King John (1595). In Act 4, Scene 2, Shakespeare wrote:

"To gild refined gold, to paint the lily...  
  Is wasteful and ridiculous excess."

The original line criticizes adding unnecessary decoration to something already beautiful, emphasizing the pointlessness of such embellishment. Over time, the phrase was condensed and evolved into "gild the lily", which carries the same meaning: to add unnecessary or excessive ornamentation to something already perfect or complete.

The expression became popular in modern English, used to describe acts of overdoing or adding superfluous details, often in a critical or humorous context. Even though it’s technically a misquote, "gild the lily" has entered the language as an idiom that captures the original spirit of Shakespeare's critique of excess.

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WE HAVE SHAKESPEARE TO THANK
Many of our everyday idioms originated from Shakespeare’s works. Here are 12 examples:

- Faint-hearted = lacking courage (Henry VI)

- Wear your heart upon your sleeve = to openly show emotions (Othello)

- Heart of gold =describing a kind person (Henry V)

- All that glitters is not gold = warning that appearances can be deceiving (The Merchant of Venice)

- Break the ice = to ease social awkwardness (The Taming of the Shrew)

- Good riddance = expressing relief at someone’s departure (Troilus and Cressida)

- In a pickle = to be in a difficult situation (The Tempest)

- Wild-goose chase = a futile pursuit (Romeo and Juliet)

- Knock knock! Who’s there? = used humorously in modern times (Macbeth)

- Salad days =  indicating youthful inexperience (Antony and Cleopatra)

- The world’s mine oyster = the world is full of opportunities (The Merry Wives of Windsor)

- Brave new world = originally referred to a hopeful future but is often used ironically today (The Tempest)

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SYNONYMS

add bells and whistles (fuel to the fire, icing on the cake, insult to injury, to the mix, unnecessary embellishment, wings to the wind), adorn unnecessarily, adornment, beat a dead horse, beautify, beautify the already beautiful, belabour the point, break a butterfly on the wheel, burden with excess, carry coals to Newcastle, decorate, do more than enough, draw water in a sieve, dress up too much, embellish (needlessly), embroider the truth, enhance unnecessarily, exaggerate (beauty), excess, fatten a hog that's already fat, finishing touches excessively, frills, frost the cake, get carried away, GILD THE LILY, go overboard, ice the cake, make a mountain out of a molehill, make needlessly fancy, make unnecessary additions, ornament, over-adorn, (-amplify, -egg, -egg the pudding, -embellish, -emboss, -glorify, -idealize, -ornament, -romanticize), overdecorate, overdo (it), overegg (elaborate, embellish, emboss, exaggerate, gild, kill, ornament, polish, praise, refine, state, paint the lily (the peacock, the rose), perfume the rose (the violet), powder your nose, put a hat on a hat (ketchup on caviar), put lipstick on a pig (pearls on a pig, shoes on a centipede, sugar in honey, the icing on a cake that doesn't need it), refine refined gold, ruin by improvement, send ale to Newcastle, teach fish to swim, throw good money after bad, try to improve perfection, unnecessarily adorn, unnecessary detail, wasteful excess, whitewash the tomb

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“Attempts to GILD THE LILY inevitably result in the spoiling of something beautiful.”

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