To gild something is to apply a coating of gold to it. The expression means to add beauty to something that is already perfect and beautiful. It is excessive and redundant.
In a broader sense, it means to overdo something, to try to add what it already has and doesn't need more of.
The expression comes from Shakespeare and has been incorrectly quoted for more than a century:SALISBURY:
Therefore, to be possess'd with double pomp,
To guard a title that was rich before,
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.
King John, 1594
Many of our common expressions are quotations from literature, and many of those are familiar to us as inaccurate quotations.
The answer is that it is neither "guilding" the lily or notthe correct phrase and spelling is " gilding the lily "'to gild' is to coat an object (in this case a lily) with real gold thustrying to make an already beautiful object (the lily) more beautifuland totally unnecessary.
Lansdown Guilding died in 1831.
Lansdown Guilding was born in 1797.
A horse that has been netered
What does an oriental lily mean
Ruth Guilding is an author known for writing historical books about British art and architecture. Some of her notable works include "Oxford in English Literature" and "St. William's College, York: The Library and Archives."
Portrait of Washington with an angel guilding his quill.
Lily means innocence, purity and beauty. The name comes from Latin.
flower/rose in spanish lily does not mean flower or rose its a name for that but for a person it means pretty flower.
The meaning of the name Lily is taken from the flower of the same name.
As written, "Lily pretty name". Usually there would be a verb, perhaps "Lily es un nombre linda." Lily is a pretty name.
A calla lily is a flower that represents spring, renewal and some say the Resurrection. The call a lily is a popular Easter flower.