sugarcoat the pill
Meaning: To make something unpleasant more palatable or easier to accept.
Language: English
Literally: (Already vivid in English)
Category: Food & Drink
Origin: The coating is a real pharmaceutical innovation and a fairly recent one. Until the nineteenth century a pill was an uncoated rolled mass of medicine, and swallowing it meant tasting it; sugar-coating was developed commercially in the 1800s, with American manufacturers refining the process from the 1850s, and it transformed how willingly patients took what they were prescribed. The metaphor is far older than the technology, however. Lucretius, writing in the first century BC, defended putting philosophy into verse by comparing it to smearing honey around the rim of a cup so that a child will drink the bitter wormwood inside — the same argument, that an unwelcome substance goes down more easily when something pleasant is applied to the outside of it, made two thousand years before anyone could actually coat a pill.
Equivalents in other languages
- French: Dorer la pilule — literally: To gild the pill
More idioms — Food & Drink
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- long pork — Human flesh, especially as food.
- bad apple — A person of bad character whose presence corrupts or damages others or a group.
- of the same leaven — Of the same nature, character, or type; alike.
- beurrer épais — To exaggerate or overdo something.
- pousser les feux — To intensify effort or energy; to redouble one's exertions to achieve a goal.
More English idioms
- ace up one's sleeve — A hidden advantage or secret resource kept in reserve to use when needed.
- what's eating you — What is bothering or irritating you?
- old flame — A former romantic partner, especially one whose memory still stirs affection.
- old fogey — An elderly person with old-fashioned or reactionary views.
- were you born in a tent — An admonishment to someone who has carelessly left a door open.
- rip it up — To perform with energy, excitement, and conspicuous success.
From our tongue twisters
- Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter's bitter. — A 'b / t / tt' plosive drill that bounces between Betty, butter, and bitter.
- She sells seashells by the seashore. — The definitive 's' versus 'sh' alternation — the tongue has to switch place of articulati…
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. — A relentless 'p' plosive drill; a peck is an old dry measure of about nine litres.