Meaning Of The Phrase Putting Lipstick On A Pig

A term used by many generally in reference to someone who may be trying to make something or someone look appealing or attractive when it quite clearly will not work or will only deceive the dumbest of people.

Meaning of the phrase putting lipstick on a pig. Putting lipstick on a pig. Marla did you see susan s new hairdo. The expression criticizes spin and is used to insinuate that a political opponent is attempting to repackage established policies and present them as new. Car salesmen are generally good at putting lipstick on a pig because they are always selling unroadworthy buckets of shit and try and hide their shitfulness by tarting them up.

Its origins do however date as far back as 1926 when charles lummis editor of the los angeles times commented that most of us know as much of history as a pig does of lipsticks though president obama recently galvanised popular use the exact wording of lipstick on a pig has existed in political rhetoric for a number of years. Spurgeon noted another variation in his 1887 compendium of proverbs the salt cellars. To put lipstick on a pig means making superficial or cosmetic changes to a product in a futile effort to disguise its fundamental failings. Put lipstick on a pig to make some superficial or cosmetic change to something so that it seems more attractive appealing or successful than it really is.

Although the term lipstick on a pig was coined in the 20th century many older phrases use the pig as a sort of standard for the crude or undesirable. Putting lipstick on a pig is a rhetorical term generally used in reference to someone who s trying to make cosmetic or superficial changes on himself that clearly doesn t deceive anyone. Lipstick on a pig. The phrase was used frequently by candidates and news media during the 2008 united states presidential election.

Usually used on ugly broads when they put on a skirt and some lipstick and well they still look like the same digusting pig. Slang for when someone tries to dress something up but is still that something. It produced an internet ad implying that obama had called palin a pig when he used a familiar phrase which mccain also has used about putting lipstick on a pig to try to make a bad situation look better. Now in the wake of barack obama s use of the saying and the mccain palin attacks against him over it putting lipstick on a pig has become the latest flashpoint in the presidential campaign.

A hog in a silk waistcoat is still a hog meaning circumstances do not alter a man s nature.