"polish a turd" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "polishes a turd",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "polishing a turd",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "polished a turd",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "polished a turd",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "polish a turd (third-person singular simple present polishes a turd, present participle polishing a turd, simple past and past participle polished a turd)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2006, Michael Fak, Portions of a Life: Recollections and Reflections, page 197",
          "text": "Demaso, trying hard to scrub a wall behind one of the toilets, started complaining how dirty the walls in the entire bathroom were. Tripp also chimed in that they were polishing a turd and that what the bathroom needed was a fresh coat of paint.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To work on a time-consuming and ultimately pointless or impossible task; to try to perfect what is inherently bad."
      ],
      "id": "en-polish_a_turd-en-verb-qquAObTp",
      "links": [
        [
          "time-consuming",
          "time-consuming"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, vulgar) To work on a time-consuming and ultimately pointless or impossible task; to try to perfect what is inherently bad."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "you can't polish a turd"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "vulgar"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "work on a time-consuming and ultimately pointless task",
          "word": "hinkata"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-polish a turd.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/04/En-au-polish_a_turd.ogg/En-au-polish_a_turd.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/En-au-polish_a_turd.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "polish a turd"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "polishes a turd",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "polishing a turd",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "polished a turd",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "polished a turd",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "polish a turd (third-person singular simple present polishes a turd, present participle polishing a turd, simple past and past participle polished a turd)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "you can't polish a turd"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "English vulgarities",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2006, Michael Fak, Portions of a Life: Recollections and Reflections, page 197",
          "text": "Demaso, trying hard to scrub a wall behind one of the toilets, started complaining how dirty the walls in the entire bathroom were. Tripp also chimed in that they were polishing a turd and that what the bathroom needed was a fresh coat of paint.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To work on a time-consuming and ultimately pointless or impossible task; to try to perfect what is inherently bad."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "time-consuming",
          "time-consuming"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, vulgar) To work on a time-consuming and ultimately pointless or impossible task; to try to perfect what is inherently bad."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "vulgar"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-polish a turd.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/0/04/En-au-polish_a_turd.ogg/En-au-polish_a_turd.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/En-au-polish_a_turd.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "work on a time-consuming and ultimately pointless task",
      "word": "hinkata"
    }
  ],
  "word": "polish a turd"
}