1. Home
2. Idioms
3. 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

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