gild the lily
To embellish or improve something unnecessarily.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“The painting is perfect, so do not gild the lily.”
“You gild the lily when you add glitter to that beautiful silk dress.”
“Stop adding more decorations to the room or you will gild the lily.”
“The speech was already powerful and moving, so he did not need to gild the lily with extra flowery language.”
“The chef realized that adding truffle oil to the perfectly seasoned steak would just gild the lily and ruin the natural flavor.”
“She decided not to use a filter on the sunset photo because she did not want to gild the lily.”
“The architect designed a masterpiece of minimalist elegance, yet the client insisted on adding ornate gold trim, effectively gilding the lily.”
The phrase is a common misquotation of a line from William Shakespeare's play King John. The original text, appearing in the play published in the early 17th century, refers to the superfluous act of gilding refined gold or painting the lily. The modern idiom conflates the two images into a single, technically impossible botanical improvement.
Last updated August 10, 2026