gold

Noun

gold (countable and uncountable, plural gold or golds)

2. (uncountable) A heavy yellow elemental metal of great value, with atomic number 79 and symbol Au.
   • 1936, Robert Frost, “The Vindictives”, in A Further Range:

     You like to hear about gold.
     A king filled his prison room
     As full as the room could hold
     To the top of his reach on the wall
     With every known shape of the stuff.
     ’Twas to buy himself off his doom.

4. (countable or uncountable) A coin or coinage made of this material, or supposedly so.

   The pirates were searching for gold.

6. (uncountable) A deep yellow colour, resembling the metal gold.

   gold:  

   metallic gold:  

8. (countable) The bullseye of an archery target.

   Daniel hit the gold to win the contest.

10. (countable) A gold medal.

    France has won three golds and five silvers.

12. (figuratively) Anything or anyone that is very valuable.

    Synonym: good as gold

    That food mixer you gave me is absolute gold, mate!

    • 2010, Paul Hendy, Who Killed Simon Peters?:

      Now obviously this meant that I went over my allotted time, but the theatre management didn't mind because I was giving them comedy gold and that's what gets bums on seats.

    • 2012, Victor Pemberton, Leo's Girl:

      Marge Quincey didn't deserve a husband like his dad. He was pure gold, and she wasn't worth a light beside him.

14. (slang, in the plural) A grill (jewellery worn on front teeth) made of gold.

Symbol

gold

1. ☉ (alchemy)

Adjective

gold (not generally comparable, comparative golder, superlative goldest)

1. Made of gold.

   Synonym: golden

   a gold chain

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. […] A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.

2. Having the colour of gold.

   Synonym: golden

   gold sticker

   gold socks

   • 1927, F. E. Penny, chapter 4, in Pulling the Strings:

     Soon after the arrival of Mrs. Campbell, dinner was announced by Abboye. He came into the drawing room resplendent in his gold-and-white turban. […] His cummerbund matched the turban in gold lines.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     Here the stripped panelling was warmly gold and the pictures, mostly of the English school, were mellow and gentle in the afternoon light.

3. (of commercial services) Premium, superior.
4. Of a musical recording: having sold 500,000 copies.

   Coordinate term: platinum

   • 2000, Billboard, volume 112, number 20, page 52:

     The album went gold, then platinum, thanks to a second hit single, "It's A Miracle".

5. (academia) Subject to or involving a model of open access in which a published article is immediately available for to read for free with no embargo period.

   Coordinate term: green

   • 2013 October 21, Peter Suber, “Open access: six myths to put to rest”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-03:

     Scholars who make their work green open access rather than gold never pay a fee to do so. Even when they choose the gold route, only 33% of peer-reviewed open access journals charge author-side fees.

Verb

gold (third-person singular simple present golds, present participle golding, simple past and past participle golded)

1. To appear or cause to appear golden.

   Hyponym: gild

   • 2010, Tanuja Desai Hidier, Born Confused:

     I caught sight of something that seemed the nexus of all that glittered, all that golded: like a hallucination in the traffic's rotary heart, a saried creature giddily swirling her own razored rainbow roundabout, mirrored fabric sending light spinning like saberlike amidst the smoking, choking cars.

   • 2011, Harry Nicholson, Tom Fleck, page 250:

     You are the sun at Noon, that golds the barley, and pulls the bee to the ling on the moor.

   • 2011, D G Compton, A Usual Lunacy:

     Worked wonders, knowing a thing like that. Golded up your hair, even, for all your record said indeterminate. Golded up the whole world, really.

   • 2011, Robert M. Ellis, “Pokhara Lake”, in North Cape: Selected Poems of a Poet Turned Philosopher, page 21:

     But I work still, a dead, unheeding man across the endless interface: wishing I was the sun who golds the lake or the lake, comprehending sun.

   • 2021, Edward Elmer Smith, The Imperial Stars:

     Hair down to my shoulders; waved and liquid-golded. Eyebrows shaved to a different shape and golded. Handle-bar mustache, waxed to points and golded.

See also

Adjective

gold (not comparable)

1. (programming, of software) In a finished state, ready for manufacturing.
   • 2004 November, “Half-Life 2 goes gold”, in HWM, page 10:

     The Company confirmed that Half-Life 2, developed by Valve Software, has gone gold with a planned retail street date of November 16, 2004.

   • 2011, Jordan Gray, Unearthed, page 6:

     He felt bone-tired and twitchy, the way he did in the final stages of putting a video-game project together, almost ready to go gold and turn a new game loose on the public.

   • 2011, Jessica Mulligan, Bridgette Patrovsky, quoting Damion Schubert, Developing Online Games: An Insider's Guide, page 221:

     I had coded guilds into M59 over the weekend, shortly before we were supposed to go gold.

Adverb

gold (not comparable)

1. of or referring to a gold version of something

Inflection

Derived terms

• goldhed ("barrenness, sterility")

Derived terms

• gilden
• golden

Descendants

• English: gold
• Scots: gowd, goold

Declension

Strong a-stem:

Derived terms

• goldfāh
• goldsele
• gylden

Descendants

• Middle English: gold
  • English: gold
  • Scots: gowd, goold

Declension

Synonyms

• goldin (chemistry - Au)
• (obsolete): golüd (classic or original Volapük / Volapük rigik)

Derived terms

See also

• bronsöt
• kuprin (chemistry - Cu)
• largent
• largentin (chemistry - Ag)

Derived terms