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can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear
Idioms and Phrases
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.Example Sentences
“It follows the old adage that you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear,†Adams said.
Koeman will say you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear and that he is doing the very best he possibly can with what is available to him.
As the saying goes, you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA According to the old adage, you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. sought to prove that you could in his fourth .
But you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, as the saying is, and you can't turn a negro or maroon into a true fighting man that will never say die.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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