gild the pill

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

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

1. 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.

• put lipstick on a pig