put lipstick on a pig

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

put lipstick on a pig (third-person singular simple present puts lipstick on a pig, present participle putting lipstick on a pig, simple past and past participle put lipstick on a pig)

1. (idiomatic) To superficially alter something in the hope of making it seem more appealing than it is in actuality.

   That new box is like putting lipstick on a pig. It's still the same buggy program inside.

   • 1987, Warner Fusselle, Baseball...a Laughing Matter!, page 183:

     Fran Healy, Mets announcer and former Giants catcher (about the possibility of putting a dome on Candlestick): "It would be like putting lipstick on a pig."

• mutton dressed as lamb
• old wine in a new bottle
• you can't make a silk purse of a sow's ear
• you can't polish a turd
• gild the pill
• cast pearls before swine