gild the lily vs embellish

gild the lily and embellish both are verbs.

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

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

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

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