Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A soft, yellow, corrosion-resistant element, the most malleable and ductile metal, occurring in veins and alluvial deposits and recovered by mining, panning, or sluicing. A good thermal and electrical conductor, gold is generally alloyed to increase its strength, and it is used as a common 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 1,064.2°C; boiling point 2,856.0°C; specific gravity 19.3; valence 1, 3. cross-reference: Periodic Table.
  • noun Coinage made of this element.
  • noun A gold standard.
  • noun Money; riches.
  • noun A light olive-brown to dark yellow, or a moderate, strong to vivid yellow.
  • noun Something regarded as having great value or goodness.
  • noun A medal made of gold awarded to one placing first in a competition, as in the Olympics.
  • adjective Having the color of gold.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun 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.
  • noun Hence, figuratively Money; riches; wealth.
  • noun Anything very valuable or highly prized; anything regarded as very precious, or as of pure or sterling quality.
  • noun A bright-yellow color, like that of the metal gold; also, gilding: as, a flower edged with gold.
  • noun In archery, the exact center of the target, so called because marked with gold, or of a gold color; hence, a shot that strikes the center: as, to secure a gold.
  • noun [English dial. also goolds (ef. Sc. gool, gule, gules, the corn-marigold), ⟨ ME. gold, goold, guld, merely a particular use of gold, the metal. Cf. marigold.] The marigold, Calendula officinalis.
  • noun Tho corn-marigold, Chrysanthemum segetum.
  • noun The turnsol; heliotrope.
  • noun A sulphid of tin, the aurum musivum of the ancients.
  • Made of, consisting of, or like gold; golden; gilded: as, a gold chain; gold color.
  • Thin plates of gilded metal, especially of yellow metal or brass gilded.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Chem.) A metallic element of atomic number 79, constituting the most precious metal used as a common commercial medium of exchange. It has a characteristic yellow color, is one of the heaviest substances known (specific gravity 19.32), is soft, and very malleable and ductile. It is quite unalterable by heat (melting point 1064.4° C), moisture, and most corrosive agents, and therefore well suited for its use in coin and jewelry. Symbol Au (Aurum). Atomic weight 196.97.
  • noun Money; riches; wealth.
  • noun A yellow color, like that of the metal.
  • noun Figuratively, something precious or pure.
  • noun See Golden age, under Golden.
  • noun etc. See under Dutch, Dust, etc.
  • noun a mineral, found in Columbia and California, composed of gold and mercury.
  • noun one whose occupation is to beat gold into gold leaf.
  • noun the prepared outside membrane of the large intestine of the ox, used for separating the leaves of metal during the process of gold-beating.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any small gold-colored beetle of the family Chrysomelidæ; -- called also golden beetle.
  • noun printing with gold leaf, as upon a book cover, by means of an engraved block.
  • noun See Cloth of gold, under Cloth.
  • noun a part of the coast of Guinea, in West Africa.
  • noun (Mining) See Cradle, n., 7.
  • noun the places, or region, where gold is found by digging in sand and gravel from which it is separated by washing.
  • noun a fragment of broken gold or jewelry.
  • noun An itinerant jeweler.
  • noun a popular mania for gold hunting.
  • noun a region in which are deposits of gold.
  • noun [Obs. & Low] One who empties privies.
  • noun a composite plant with dry and persistent yellow radiating involucral scales, the Helichrysum Stœchas of Southern Europe. There are many South African species of the same genus.
  • noun thin sheets of gold, as used by dentists and others. See Gold leaf.
  • noun (Bot.) buttercups.
  • noun a kind of lace, made of gold thread.
  • noun a thin plate of gold or gilded metal.
  • noun gold beaten into a film of extreme thinness, and used for gilding, etc. It is much thinner than gold foil.
  • noun (Mining) a gold vein.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English; see ghel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From gold master, a copy of the code certified as being ready for release.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old English gold ("gold"), from Proto-Germanic *gulþan (“gold”). Compare Dutch goud, German Gold, Swedish guld), from Pre-Germanic *ǵʰl̥tóm (“gold”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰel- (“yellow; gleam; to shine”) (compare Latvian zelts, Russian золото (zóloto), Persian زر (zar), Sanskrit ... (hīraṇyam). More at yellow.

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Examples

  • By Anonymous, at Sun Apr 15, 12:08:00 PM wow gold wow gold wow power leveling wow power leveling wow gold@@@

    When is a political strategy a lie Glyn Davies 2007

  • I asked her how she knew I had gold, and she said that did not matter -- I had some "diutang-a-dacolds" (little dacolds), and she was willing to sell hens for ten "diutang-a-dacolds" _gold_, but not for media-pesetas.

    A Woman's Impression of the Philippines Mary Helen Fee

  • The alchemists thought that to every thing, or at any rate to every class of things, there corresponds a more perfect form than that which we see and handle; they spoke of gold, and the _gold of the Sages_; mercury, and the _mercury of the Philosophers_; sulphur, and the

    The Story of Alchemy and the Beginnings of Chemistry M. M. Pattison Muir

  • He cared now for only one thing: gold, _gold_, GOLD.

    A Hive of Busy Bees Effie Mae Hency Williams

  • III. þǣr hē hǣðen gold warað (_where he guards heathen gold_), 2278; pl.

    Beowulf Robert Sharp 1879

  • III. þær he hæðen gold warað (_where he guards heathen gold_), 2278; pl.

    Beowulf Robert Sharp 1879

  • Brazil, it is still affirmed in works treating of the commerce of the precious metals, that a quantity of gold equivalent to four millions of piastres (5800 kilogrammes of gold*) flows into Europe annually from

    Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America 1851

  • The tincture of gold known by the name of _Mademoiselle Grimaldi's potable gold_ enjoyed a wonderful reputation towards the close of the 18th century as an efficacious restorative and stimulant; and numerous instances of its all but miraculous powers were confidently adduced.

    Aphrodisiacs and Anti-aphrodisiacs: Three Essays on the Powers of Reproduction John Davenport 1833

  • It is stated by Sir J. Chardin, that the plate of the king of Persia is of pure gold, originally made by Shah Abbas, the most glorious of the princes of the Sefi royal family; who, for this purpose, melted seven thousand two hundred marks, or nearly thirty six thousand English troy ounces of _the purest gold_.

    Female Scripture Biographies, Volume I Francis Augustus Cox 1818

  • I dwell on these particulars because, in confounding the different periods of the riches and poverty of the gold-washings of Brazil, it is still affirmed in works treating of the commerce of the precious metals, that a quantity of gold equivalent to four millions of piastres (5800 kilogrammes of gold*) flows into

    Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 — Volume 3 Alexander von Humboldt 1814

Comments

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  • All that is gold does not glitter.

    Not all those who wander are lost.

    The old that is strong does not wither,

    Deep roots are not touched by the frost.

    From the ashes a fire shall be woken.

    A light from the shadows shall spring.

    Remade will be blade that was broken,

    And the crownless again will be King.

    --J.R.R. Tolkien

    March 10, 2007

  • that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and the glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ

    1 Peter 1:7

    October 25, 2007

  • Au.

    December 16, 2007

  • Yes.......panning for gold.....

    ....sometimes out of the swirling liquidity.....something

    shiny......and beautiful.......

    ......you hold it for a while.....then pass it on.......

    ....like this.

    --"toombaru"

    January 25, 2008

  • not all gold is glitter!!!!!!!!!!

    May 20, 2012