"Gild the Lily" and "Polishing the Cannon Ball"

Posted by Bob on June 13, 2006

In Reply to: "Gild the Lily" and "Polishing the Cannon Ball" posted by MHunting on June 13, 2006

: There are a couple of phrases I tried to find here and could not. "Gild the Lily" and "Polishing the Cannon Ball". Gild the Lily can be found in other sources and is a contraction of a Shakespere line (John IV). But I can't find the derivation of "Polishing the Cannon Ball". It is my understanding that that phrase means to over prepare, but I would like the root source.

"Gild the lily" is in our archives; it has been discussed numerous times. Go back one page, type it into the Google Search box, and that will lead you to previous entries. "Polish the cannonball" has not been discussed here before.