Meaning of gilded cage | Babel Free

Definitions

A place (or, by extension, situation) which is superficially attractive but nevertheless constraining; a comfortable but confined situation.

figuratively

Equivalents

Examples

“Two years ago he wrote of the Presidency as the "final sacrifice," adding: "The restraint, artificiality and loneliness in the White House... seems the life of a pet in a gilded cage."”

“There were no bars on the windows, no jangling keys, no doors to lock⟳ or unlock⟳. It was altogether pleasant, but I never forgot that it was a gilded cage.”

“In many circumstances, religion has been used to bully and intimidate women and deprive them of power. It may have⟳ offered inspiration and meaning, but too often it has been something of a gilded cage.”

“Trapped behind barbed wire, but increasingly prosperous, East Germany began to resemble⟳ the gilded cage of the eastern bloc, at least in the eyes of its socialist neighbours.”

CEFR level