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

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

proverb You cannot fashion something beautiful or valuable out of poor materials. You expect me to make a wedding dress out of this tacky fabric? I'm sorry, but you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear!

See also: ear, make, of, purse, silk

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Prov. You cannot make someone more refined than he or she is by nature. I've given up trying to get my cousin to appreciate classical music. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

See also: cannot, ear, make, of, out, purse, silk

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

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

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.

See also: ear, make, of, out, purse, silk

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.

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

If you say you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, you mean that it is impossible to make something very successful or of high quality out of something which is unsuccessful or of poor quality. He did his best to coach the team but you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. Note: People often vary this expression. It takes more than a good swimming pool and an indoor tennis court or two to make a sow's ear of a resort into a silk purse. Afterwards, Kendall made no attempt to describe this sow's ear as a silk purse. Note: A sow is a female pig, and the ears of a pig are regarded as the least useful body parts when the animal is slaughtered.

See also: ear, make, of, out, purse, silk

Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

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

One cannot turn something inherently inferior into something of value. This proverbial metaphor dates from about 1500, and with some slight variation (“silk” is sometimes “velvet”) makes its way from proverb collections (by Howell, Ray, Dykes, et al.) into literature (Samuel Richardson, Laurence Sterne, Jonathan Swift, Charles Lamb, Robert Browning, George Bernard Shaw, and Clifford Odets, among others).

See also: ear, make, of, out, purse, silk

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

You cannot turn something inferior or bad into something of value. This proverbial warning was issued in various forms from the sixteenth century on. It clearly had no literal basis; indeed, the absurdity of trying to turn pig’s ears into silk (or velvet or satin, as some variants have it) no doubt helped the saying survive.

See also: ear, make, of, out, purse, silk

The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer