sugarcoat

sugarcoat (something)

To say, explain, or present something in a manner that is easier to accept, understand, cope with, or endure. Don't sugarcoat it for me, Doc—is my wife going to make it? My grandmother was never one to sugarcoat her criticisms. If she thought you had messed up, she would tell you in no uncertain terms.
See also: sugarcoat

sugar-coat the pill

To make something bad, unpleasant, or dissatisfactory easier to cope with, endure, or accept. The bosses are giving everyone an extra 10% bonus this Christmas, but I suspect it's a way of sugar-coating the pill that there will be massive pay cuts in January. I have to tell my mom about wrecking her car, but I need to find a way to sugar-coat the pill first.
See also: pill

sugarcoated

Said, explained, or presented in a manner that is easier to accept, understand, cope with, or endure. Stop giving me sugarcoated responses whenever I ask about the state of the project. I need to know how it's actually progressing! It doesn't have to be sugarcoated, but you should aim to be a bit more empathetic when you deliver a prognosis to one of you patients.
See also: sugarcoat
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

sugarcoated

mod. palatable; inoffensive; easy to take. Math is so sugarcoated these days. Even I could learn it.
See also: sugarcoat
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • coating
  • sugarcoat (something)
  • sugarcoated
  • sweeten the pill
  • sugar-coat the pill
  • bear the sight of (someone or something)
  • not stand the sight of (someone or something)
  • take (something) lying down
  • take lying down
  • take something lying down
References in periodicals archive
When predicting sugarcoating, females were more likely to sugarcoat than males, and extraverts engaged in less sugarcoating behavior.
Don't make me the bad guy: organizational norms, self-monitoring, and the mum effect
If you can't do it personally, engage some trusted long-term subordinates who won't sugarcoat the message.
The politics of mean
Dakila Cua said he would not sugarcoat the bill that lists down offsetting measures despite the reduction of personal income tax.
Solons warn DOF tax reform package to pass on burden to consumers
Despite its happy ending, Black Beauty does not sugarcoat the fact that a horse's life is one of misery and drudgery.
Brigman, June & Richardson, Roy. Anna Sewell's Black Beauty
We should not try to sugarcoat ourselves, and I reject the notion that every gay man should conduct himself as an ambassador of the global gay village.
Reader forum
A devastated Munsayac did not sugarcoat his words, and said a loss is a loss no matter the angle he looked at it.
Another game, another heartbreak for Munsayac
Kessler's blunt evocation of the terrorist's-eye view trained on a series of tourist-souvenir images does not sugarcoat the process of information extraction: Unlike our government, he refuses to disavow the intimate relationship between violence and representation.
Information man: David Joselit on Jon Kessler's "Global Village Idiot"
The people are dying of hunger and poverty but the PM is issuing the sugarcoated statements only.
U-turn policy of the government has failed: Communist Party
This is the welcome kind of parenting book that sugarcoats nothing.
Oh, Baby! True Stories about Conception, Adoption, Surrogacy, Pregnancy, Labor, and Love
Also flying the Teesside flag on the stage on Saturday, April 19, are prog-pop Weird Shapes, The Approved - the latest project from High Plane Drifters' guitarist, sugarcoated indie darlings John & The Ragmen, lo-fi trio Dressed Like Wolves, and female acoustic duo Taylor Mayd.
Spring music festival line-up
This sugarcoated article on how noble it is to shoot and kill animals perpetuates the myth that hunters actually care about the animals they kill and the land on which they live.
Over and out
One man and his wizened, chain-smoking heart drag themselves out of the mundane into a sugarcoated world.
Pick of the day; THE ARTS EDITOR'S PICK OF THE DAY
You will always be one of my favorite people because you always told the truth and never sugarcoated anything.
Football coaches: built for others
Thankfully, Younger doesn't feel the need for a sugarcoated, fairy-tale ending but his ponderous, wintry coda is surplus to requirements.
Uma succumbs to that age old theme of love
This series effectively destabilized the aesthetic values of the '60s generation of dissident modernists by confronting them with slogans such as "[Eduard] Steinberg, you are Malevich sugarcoated. It's time to recognize this, please."
"Russia!": Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum