1. Literally, coated something in a thin layer of gold. I just don't understand why you would ever want—let alone need—a gold-plated bathtub.

2. By extension, having or incorporating unnecessary, superfluous, and/or overbearing refinements, additions, or embellishments. Congress took what should have been a straightforward clean water initiative and turned it into a cumbersome and wildly impractical gold-plated bill. The county council has been accused of wastefully using taxpayer money to create gold-plated infrastructure improvements to the city.