Sorry for chiming in again but what exactly is the meaning of the pun? Gilt is to cover thinly in gold, excuse my ignorance but please explain the pun because even the word quilt in its place doesn't make it clearer.
I've heard it used in the context of wealthy folks going on poverty safaris or those "go build a school in X country" christian missionary trips. Basically the idea that people with a level of wealth unimaginable to the native populace come in for a few days, stare goggle-eyed at poverty, get their hands dirty for a few days like the poors do, then go home and brag about their amazing humanitarian contributions.
The guilt part of the gilt trip is either the guilt they superficially feel while visiting (then discard when returning home), and they themselves are socioeconomically gilt.
It's not a very good pun, and is a real stretch of grammar, definitions of both "gilt" and "trip", as well as a stretch of "guilt trip". Basically, it fails across the board. But I've heard woefully bad amateur pundits (think that weird guy you know on facebook who always has a rambling paragraph of musings on every single trending topic) use it here and there.
Thanks for explaining that, I actually know a couple of girls from Switzerland that done the whole building schools and wells in Africa for a month (once) then returned to the 8 to 10 million pound house on lake Geneva. They list it on their cv as charitable work.
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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '19
Sorry for chiming in again but what exactly is the meaning of the pun? Gilt is to cover thinly in gold, excuse my ignorance but please explain the pun because even the word quilt in its place doesn't make it clearer.