gild the lily

Examples of gild

gild
The main piece of evidence for this is a statute of 1436 requiring all gilds to register their ordinances with local authorities.
However, this act seems to have been ineffectual, suggesting something of what the gilds themselves thought of the idea.
Inclusive and open meetings under the 'canopy of heaven' invested themselves with an 'honesty' that was unattainable in 'fashionable halls and gilded rooms'.
The capacity for subjects to conduct their own affairs, at a village or town level, in gilds or in universities, is not really considered.
The foundation of gilds and fraternities was common in the early and mid-fifteenth century.
The same is true of his treatment of the many manifestations of the gild.
In this respect, the article has a wider significance to urban historians for the understanding of the nature of gilds and the position of gilds within the world of work.
A network of meanings led to "inhibition" becoming a valued word in physiological science, and this network then provided a ready home for a "popularized" usage gilded with scientific authority.
Its tone fits in much more easily with the generally hostile attitude displayed by the crown towards the gilds as evidenced by the 1389 survey and the 1548 dissolution.
The boundaries between the different crafts which constituted the gild were deliberately imprecise, allowing craftsmen to negotiate constantly with other members of the gild in the production of art.
These barges are called ' 'flower boats,' ' a name they derive from the elegant and ornamental style in which they are fitted up, and carried and gilded.
These large, gilded bronze statues must have made a startling impact, and may have helped to achieve the evident aim of identifying the urban elite with this highly charged location.
In three of the four cases the gilds had little or no direct political voice, and the government acted early and decisively against the spread of evangelical ideas.
Most single women worked in domestic service, farm labour, or lowly occupations not covered by gild restrictions, though borough laws often sought to prevent spinsters from living and working independently.
The key difference in status among the victualling gilds was in wholesale versus retail trade: to trade wholesale required considerable capital and was therefore high status.
See all examples of gild
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.