verb [T] to cover (a surface) with a thin layer of gold or a substance that looks like gold
The statue, recently gilded, shone brightly in the mid-day sun.
FIGURATIVE Sunlight gilded (=brightly lit) the children's faces. [T]
(disapproving) If you gild the lily you try to improve or decorate something which is already perfect and therefore spoil it.
gilded
adjective [not gradable] The gilded dome of the cathedral rises above the city.
Gilded can also mean rich or of a higher social class.
The story revolves around the gilded youth of the 1920s and their glittering life-styles.
Both young princes are on the guest-list of this gilded occasion.