Gold definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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noun A soft, yellow, corrosion-resistant element, the most malleable and ductile metal, occurring in veins and alluvial deposits and recovered by mining or by panning or sluicing. A good thermal and electrical conductor, gold is generally alloyed to increase its strength, and it is used as an international monetary standard, in jewelry, for decoration, and as a plated coating on a wide variety of electrical and mechanical components. Atomic number 79; atomic weight 196.967; melting point 1,063.0°C; boiling point 2,966.0°C; specific gravity 19.32; valence 1, 3. See Table at element.
noun Coinage made of this element.
noun A gold standard.

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Century Dictionary (43)

Chemical symbol, Au; atomic weight, 196.7. A precious metal remarkable on account of its unique and beautiful yellow color, luster, high specific gravity, and freedom from liability to rust or tarnish when exposed to the air. The specific gravity of pure gold is 19.3. Gold stands first among the metals in point of ductility and malleability. Its tenacity is almost equal to that of silver, two thirds that of copper, and, twelve times that of lead. It may be beaten into leaves thin enough to transmit a greenish light. It stands next to silver and copper as a conductor of heat and electricity; its melting-point is about 1,100° C. (or 2,000° F.); it is not attacked by any of the ordinary acids, but combines readily with chlorin; and it is dissolved by a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids. The crystalline form of gold is isometric, but crystallized gold is a rarity, and it is extremely uncommon to find crystals with smooth faces and sharp edges. Neither have any very large crystals ever been noticed, nor one so much as an inch in diameter. Arborescent masses, showing irregularly developed crystalline planes, are occasionally found, and such forms are sometimes aggregated into large masses; but much the larger part of the native gold found is entirely destitute of any appearance of crystallization, being usually in the form of small scales, which are often so minute as to be almost invisible to the naked eye. Larger rounded masses, called nuggets, are occasionally met with, and these are sometimes many pounds in weight. A specimen from the Ural preserved in the collection of the mining school at St. Petersburg weighs nearly a hundred pounds. The largest nugget of which there is any record was found in Australia, and was called the “Welcome,” It weighed over 184 pounds, contained by assay 99.2 per cent, of gold, and netted a value when melted of $46,625. Gold is a widely disseminated metal, but does not occur anywhere in large quantities, as compared with the ordinary useful metals. There is no proper ore of gold, this metal being never, so far as known, mineralized by sulphur or oxygen. Although gold is disseminated in fine and usually invisible particles through various ores of the other metals, and in many cases in quantity great enough to be separated with profit, most of the gold of the world is obtained either in the form of native gold, from washing the superficial detritus (sand and gravel), or by separating it from quartz, with which mineral it is almost invariably associated when occurring in veins or segregations in the solid rocks. Native gold is, however, in fact, an alloy of gold with silver, and traces of copper and iron are often associated with it. No native gold entirely free from silver has ever been found. The amount of the latter metal present in the gold varies greatly in different regions. The gold of California usually contains from 10 to 12 per cent of silver; that of Australia rather less than half as much. The native gold of Mount Morgan, Queensland, approaches more nearly to chemical purity than any hitherto discovered, since it contains 99.7 per cent of gold, and only a minute trace of silver. Pure gold is very rarely used in the arts. All gold coin and gold ornaments in use are alloys of gold with copper, or with copper and silver. The alloy is used, in the case of coin, because pure gold is too soft to bear rough usage; and for the same reason, as well as to diminish the cost, in the case of gold used for personal ornaments. The coin of (England is composed of 11 parts of gold and 1 of copper; that of France and the United States of 9 of gold and 1 of copper. The so-called gold used for jewels and watch-cases varies from 8 or 9 to 18 carats fine. (See carat, 3.) The alloys of gold with copper and silver are given various shades of color by treatment with chemicals, according to fashion or fancy. Gold has been in use for ornamental purposes from the earliest times. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich. Rev. iii. 18. All that glisters is not gold. Shak, M. of V., ii. 7. Gold! Gold! Gold! Gold! Bright and yellow, hard and cold, Molten, graven, hammer'd and roll'd. Hood, Miss Kilmansegg. It is curious that, if we regard a quantity of gold as wearing away annually by a fixed percentage of what remains, the duration of some part is infinite, and yet the average duration is finite. Jevons, Pol. Econ., p. 262.
Hence, figuratively Money; riches; wealth. For me — the gold of France did not seduce. Shak, Hen. V., ii. 2. The old man's god, his gold, has won upon her. Fletcher and Shirley, Night-Walker. Judges and senates have been bought for gold. Pope, Essay on Man, iv. 187.
Anything very valuable or highly prized; anything regarded as very precious, or as of pure or sterling quality. The king's a bawcock, and a heart of gold, A lad of life, an imp of fame. Shak., Hen. V., iv. 1.

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The search for the gold was a speculative and possibly dangerous quest. — THE PERFECT WIFE - VICTORIA ALEXANDER
It's funny that most of the gold is at the end of tapes, where someone probably fell asleep taping something and ended up with half of a CityPulse Tonight broadcast, or in the best case scenario, a station sign-off. — Progressive Bloggers
He wants to make love to her but her gold is her own, and he can't take it by force. — New Statesman
At Stotes they won by 2.3 seconds over Winter Park, at Scholastic Nationals the gold was theirs with a 2.2 second victory over Winter Park again.
Second, the gold was already slated to be sold next year.

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