Gold

Gold, gōld, n. one of the precious metals much used for coin: money: riches: anything very precious: yellow, gold colour.—adj. made of or like gold.—ns. Gold′-beat′er, one whose trade is to beat gold into gold-leaf; Gold′-beat′ers′-skin, the outer coat of the cæcum of the ox; Gold′-beat′ing.—adj. Gold′-bound (Shak.), encompassed with gold.—ns. Gold′-cloth, cloth woven with threads of gold; Gold′-crest, a golden-crested bird of genus Regulus; Gold′-dig′ger, one who digs for or mines gold, esp. a placer-miner; Gold′-dust, gold in dust or very fine particles, as it is sometimes found in rivers.—adj. Gold′en, made of gold: of the colour of gold: bright: most valuable: happy: highly favourable.—v.t. to become golden.—ns. Gold′en-age, an early period in history, a time of innocence and happiness; Gold′en-eye, a species of oceanic ducks which breed in the Arctic regions, and are winter visitants of Britain.—adj. Gold′en-hilt′ed (Tenn.), having a hilt made of, or mounted with, gold.—adv. Gold′enly (Tenn.), splendidly, delightfully.—ns. Gold′en-rod, any herb of the genus Solidago, of the aster family; Gold′-fē′ver, a mania for seeking gold; Gold′-field, a region where gold is found; Gold′finch, the most beautiful of English finches, with very handsome plumage, in which black, crimson-red, yellow, and white are, in the adult male, exquisitely mingled; Gold′fish, a Chinese and Japanese fresh-water fish, nearly allied to the carp—in its native waters it is brownish, but when domesticated becomes golden-yellow; Gold′-foil, gold beaten into thin sheets, used by dentists; Gold′ilocks, Gold′ylocks, a common name for Ranunculus (q.v.); Gold′-lace, lace made of gold-thread; Gold′-leaf, gold beaten extremely thin, or into leaves; Gold′-lil′y, the yellow lily; Gold′-mine, a mine from which gold is dug; Gold′-plate, vessels and utensils of gold collectively; Gold′smith, a worker in gold and silver; Gold′spink (Scot.), the goldfinch; Gold′stick, the colonel of a regiment of life-guards who attends the sovereign on state occasions—he receives a gold rod with his commission; Gold′-thread, a ranunculaceous plant found from Denmark to Siberia, with evergreen leaves, resembling those of the strawberry: a thread formed of a strip of gold-leaf laid over a thread of silk; Gold′-wash′er, one who obtains gold by washing it from sand and gravel: a cradle or other implement for washing gold from auriferous dirt; Gold′-wire, wire made of or covered with gold.—Golden beetle, the name popularly given to many members of the Chrysomela genus of coleopterous insects, marked by their metallic splendour of colour; Golden bull (L. bulla aurea), an edict issued by the Emperor Charles IV. in 1356, mainly for the purpose of settling the law of imperial elections; Golden fleece, in Greek mythology, the fleece of the ram Chrysomallus, the recovery of which was the object of the famous expedition of the Argonauts—it gave its name to a celebrated order of knighthood in Austria and Spain, founded in 1429; Golden horde, the Kipchaks, a Turkic people, whose empire was founded in central and southern Russia by Batu in the 13th century; Golden legend (L. aurea legenda), a celebrated medieval collection of lives of the greater saints, the work of Jacobus de Voragine (1230-98); Golden number for any year, the number of that year in the Metonic Cycle, and as this cycle embraces nineteen years, the golden numbers range from one to nineteen; Golden rose, a rose formed of wrought gold, and blessed by the Pope in person on the fourth Sunday in Lent, usually presented to some Catholic prince. [A.S. gold; Ice. gull, Ger. gold, Goth. gulth, Russ. zlato, Gr. chrysos.]