sugarcoat the pill

present singular third person sugarcoats the pill · participle present sugarcoating the pill · participle past sugarcoated the pill · past sugarcoated the pill · alternative sugarcoat a bitter pill

1. idiomaticinformalTo make an unpleasant event less displeasing.

   Near-synonyms: polish a turd, put lipstick on a pig, sweeten the pot

   3 more examples

   To sugarcoat the pill of payment the receiver of the tax was wont to refer to it disparagingly in the diminutive, calling it “la huchette,” “the little tax on a fish stall.”

   1930, Watson White, The Paris that is Paris, page 186

   Philosophy supposes that the argument is merely flavored with such imported images to sugarcoat the pill of difficult thinking for those unused to the bitter remedy of rigorous thought.

   2008, Robert Solomon, David Sherman, editors, The Blackwell Guide to Continental Philosophy, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 326

   One middle-aged woman does not sugar-coat the pill, rating the experience “one out of 10” because “shops keep shutting”.

   2018 October 20, Zoe Wood, “Shopping malls' desperate decline comes to prime minister’s doorstep”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms: gild the pill, sweeten the pill, polish a turd, put lipstick on a pig, sweeten the pot