Dictionary Home » The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms » can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear

can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear

can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear idiom
Be unable to turn something ugly or inferior into something attractive or of value, as in No matter how expensive his clothes, he still looks sloppy—you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. This expression was already a proverb in the mid-1500s.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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