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Glite Dictionary
🥇 To cover with gold ✨ To add extras
to gold-plate

to gold-plate

8.2
To add extra features or rules that make something costly and difficult
  • phrasal verb
  • /ˈɡoʊldˌpleɪt/
  • Literature
translation icon : complicar innecesariamente
  • They decided to gold-plate the project by adding unnecessary features that only increased the cost.

Examples

  • To meet the EU directive some agencies started gold-plating standards, adding paperwork beyond what was required.

  • The committee's choice to gold-plate the regulations made the process far more complicated than needed.

  • Politicians warned that ministers might gold-plate the new safety rules, making them costly for small firms.

  • The contractor gold-plated the design with unnecessary features that delayed the project and increased costs.

  • Don't gold-plate the project with unnecessary features!

  • The committee decided to gold-plate the proposal.

  • By choosing to gold-plate the report with excessive details, the team made it difficult for others to understand the main points.

Synonyms

to overcomplicate
vsto gold-plate
3 5.8

Make something harder than it needs to be

often adds extra rules or costly changes beyond mere complexity
to gild the lily
vsto gold-plate
  • Informal
2 8.8

To make unneeded changes to something already beautiful

focuses more on added rules costs and practical burdens rather than decoration
to goldplate
vsto gold-plate
  • Jargon
8.4

To add unneeded costly features to a product or project that do not help its main purpose

is broader, including needless rules and complexity beyond technical additions
to overelaborate
vsto gold-plate
8.1

To add too much detail and make something more complicated than needed

focuses more on unnecessary embellishments and regulatory requirements
to overegg the pudding
vsto gold-plate
  • UK
9.9

To add too many details and ruin something

leans toward regulatory or costly additions rather than only decorative excess
to paint the lily
vsto gold-plate
  • Informal
9.9

To add decoration that is not needed to something already beautiful

implies adding expensive or bureaucratic requirements not mere decoration
to put on frills
vsto gold-plate
7.2

To add small not needed decorations to clothes or events to make them seem fancier

is about costly complex requirements rather than small visual extras

Antonyms

to simplify
99 2.5

Make something easier to understand or use

How Complex

to gold-plate
  • Literature
8.2
to modify
268 3.2
to simplify
99 2.5

Surface Forms

gold-plate infinitive
gold-plated past
gold-plated past participle
gold-plating present participle
gold-plates third person singular

Morphology

gold-plate = gold + plate (semi-transparent) = gold + plate

The figurative sense extends the literal idea of superficially coating something to mean adding unnecessary or ornamental features, a metaphorical shift that may not be obvious to all learners.

Etymology

Gold-plate used in a non-literal way comes from the picture of putting gold on something even when it is not needed, so to gold-plate a rule or plan is to add costly 'extras' that make it more complex and expensive.