gild1

 
Pronunciation: /gɪld/

verb

[with object] (often as adjective gilded)
  • cover thinly with gold: Camelot’s gilded towers figurative the first rays of the sun were gilding the grassy hillside
  • (as adjective gilded) wealthy and privileged: the gilded fools who surrounded the Prince

Phrases

gild the lily

try to improve what is already beautiful or excellent.
[misquotation, from ‘To gild refined gold, to paint the lily; to throw perfume on the violet, … is wasteful, and ridiculous excess’ (Shakespeare's King John vi. ii. 11.)]

Derivatives

gilder

noun

Origin:

Old English gyldan, of Germanic origin; related to gold