gilded cage
1
8.1
- noun
- /ˈɡɪldɪd keɪdʒ/
:
jaula dorada
- Despite the beautiful surroundings, he felt like he was living in a gilded cage with no true freedom.
- a bird in a gilded cage
You know, where Americans, they think their their shit don't stink and they think that they somehow live in this gilded cage where the stuff that other countries endure.
- You know, where Americans, they think their their shit don't stink and they think that they somehow live in this gilded cage where the stuff that other countries endure.
Examples
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At best, Botha regarded my gilded cage as a way to seduce me into submission.
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Under lock and key, under wraps during this milliner's remaining years, my family sworn to secrecy, in the playhouse, it and I could spin out its remaining days like birds in a gilded cage.
Fiction book (2002) -
I wish for nothing more than to be free of my gilded cage.
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I might be captive in this gilded cage, but I will never be your wife.
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The bird in a gilded cage, eh, dingle?
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A bird sits listless in a gilded cage.
Fiction book (2001) -
The performance artists Guillermo Gomez-Pena and Coco Fusco display themselves in a gilded cage as Caribbean Indians familiar with the debris of Western civilization by posing as pirates over the course of 200 years.
Academic text (1993) -
She realized that her luxurious lifestyle was merely a gilded cage, trapping her in a world of expectations.
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Many celebrities live in a gilded cage, surrounded by luxury but lacking genuine happiness.
Synonyms
150
5.7
A situation that limits a person's freedom or movement
A situation where people feel trapped by what others think they should do
A place that feels like you cannot move or act freely
A situation that traps people and stops them from making free choices
Antonyms
How Confining
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'an attractive or luxurious situation that is nevertheless confining' is directly compositional from 'gilded' (made to look shiny/attractive or superficially enhanced) + 'cage' (a restricting enclosure). This image/metaphor (e.g. "golden cage") is cross-linguistically common, so a learner who knows both constituents can readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The phrase gilded cage comes from the image of a bird in a shiny gold cage: gilded means covered with gold and a cage keeps the bird inside. That picture of something beautiful that still traps you explains why the phrase means a 'luxurious but confining' situation.