Wiktionary
n. A place (or, by extension, situation) which is superficially attractive but nevertheless constraining; a comfortable but confined situation.
Usage examples of "gilded cage".
The gilded cage glowed in the dawn light, the sinuous patterns at top and bottom improbably pretty for a slave cage.
The box was fashioned to resemble a gilded cage, and in it a clockwork bird covered with tiny iridescent metal feathers swung on a tiny swing.
I took his arm in one hand, carrying the gilded cage within my other, and entered the Temple of Naamah.
He was like a caged bird, beating at the bars of his gilded cage, burned up with grief and frustration.
So far she had only known the gilded cage of Biagio's mansion, but if just once he could take her to the markets or walk with her along the shore, she would fall for his magnificent island.
And while Louis XIV kept his enemies in the gilded cage of Versailles, William probably had more forthright ways of dealing with his.
Anigel could not help but utter a piteous cry as she beheld an elaborate painted and gilded cage.
There were not lacking, however, evidences of what we may call the intelligent egoism of a youth who is charmed with the indolent, careless life of an only son, and who lives as it were in a gilded cage.
Soon he was on his feet doing his best to reach five jumps As he played he thought of his ship out on the sea, and of Biagio stuck in his gilded cage impatiently pacing as he awaited word from the queen Then, Kasrin started to think about Jelena.
But there was very little chance that Vaughn would ever be allowed to leave his gilded cage here on Cinnabar.
And as she stepped up to the microphone on the stage of The Gilded Cage, hearing the piano behind her, Helen was a living explosion of unbearable memory and indomitable joy.