gild the pill

English edit

Supposedly from an old pharmaceutical practice of coating bitter tasting pills with a thin layer of metal (see bitter pill).

gild the pill (third-person singular simple present gilds the pill, present participle gilding the pill, simple past and past participle gilded the pill)

Synonym of sugarcoat the pill
- 1888, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, The Yeomen of the Guard […] , London: Chappel & Co., […], published c. 1911, page 17:
  For he who'd make his fellow-creatures wise / Should always gild the philosophic pill!
- 1891 May 8, Mr. Goschen, “Purchase of Land, &c.”, in parliamentary debates (House of Commons)‎^[1]:
  The chemists who first gilded the pill now sit on the Front Opposition Bench.

to make something unappealing look more attractive — see also sugarcoat