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All that glitters is not gold

  1. Things that appear on the surface to be of great value may be quite worthless.


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Idioms and Phrases

Something attractive is not always what it seems, as in This house is really beautiful, but a close look will show dry rot near the foundation—all that glitters is not gold . Aesop stated the same idea in two of his fables (c. 600 b.c. ), and a version close to the current wording appeared in 1175.

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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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