| 单词 | to polish a turd |
| 释义 | > as lemmasto polish a turd to polish a turd and variants: to (seek to) improve something which is inherently or unalterably unpleasant, of poor quality, etc. Chiefly in negative contexts, esp. in you can't polish a turd. Cf. you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear and variants at silk n. and adj. Compounds 1a. you can't polish a turd but you can roll it in glitter: you cannot actually improve something inherently or unalterably unpleasant or of poor quality but you can make it appear to be more tolerable, appealing, acceptable, etc. ΚΠ 1976 G. Stokes Star-making Machinery xxi. 137 Listen, you can't polish a turd. 1997 Re: Need Help with VS-880 & Tape Hiss! in alt.music.4-track (Usenet newsgroups) 22 Dec. If it is too noisy, this may not work too well. You can only shine a turd so much. 2009 MX (Austral.) (Nexis) 3 July 16 You can't polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter. More than 20 years of neglect has left us with a sparkling stinker of a train system. 2011 Times 26 Nov. (Mag. section) 11/2 Alas, I don't have massively long eyelashes; they are so stumpy that I don't even bother wearing mascara on principle, the principle being that you can't polish a turd. 2016 Advertiser (Adelaide) (Nexis) 6 Nov. 71 I thank my..sub-editors such as the inestimable John Whistler, who improves my crap and proves that you can't polish a turd but you can roll it in glitter. < as lemmas |
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