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