gild the lily vs beautify

gild the lily and beautify both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
gild the lily	No	No	Yes	No
beautify	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, beautify is a hypernym of gild the lily; that is, beautify is a word with a broader meaning than gild the lily:

Other hypernyms of gild the lily include adorn, decorate, embellish, grace, ornament.

gild the lily (verb)	beautify (verb)
make unnecessary additions to what is already complete	make more beautiful
adorn unnecessarily (something that is already beautiful)	make more attractive by adding ornament, colour, etc.
	be beautiful to look at