sugar the pill 字面意思是给苦药裹上糖，后引申为“使不愉快的事变得较易接受”，给人一点甜头安慰一下，以便使人更容易接受。

【例句】
They suggest that the road tax be abolished to sugar the pill.
他们建议用取消道路税使得人们更易接受。

Whenever he wants to borrow money from me, he will try tosugar the pillby saying that he will return the money very soon.
每次他来向我借钱，总是花言巧语，说很快就会把钱还我。