gold

plural golds · alternative obsolete gould · alternative ☉

1. uncountableusuallychemistryA heavy yellow elemental metal of great value, with atomic number 79.

   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.

   1936, Robert Frost, “The Vindictives”, in A Further Range

   1 more example

   “Femininity and softness,” says Jean-Bernard Forot, Piaget’s jewelry director, to explain the move toward pink and red golds, as well as stones that include pink tones: sapphires, rubellites and the increasingly rare spinels.

   2012 September 17, Suzy Menkes, “Radiant Like the Dawn: Rose Gold Is in Vogue Again”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 29 Sep 2012

   Synonyms: mul:Au

2. countableuncountableA coin or coinage made of this material, or supposedly so.

   The pirates were searching for gold.

3. uncountableusuallyA deep yellow colour, resembling the metal gold.

   Now yellow is ascendant: ambers, golds and sulfurs radiate from the fallen leaves among the rocks and tree trunks.

   2011 November 11, Marielle Anzelone, “Green Fades, Ambers and Golds Radiate”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 Nov 2011

4. countableThe bullseye of an archery target.

   Daniel hit the gold to win the contest.

5. countableA gold medal.

   France has won three golds and five silvers.

6. countablefigurativelyuncountableAnything or anyone that is very valuable.

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

   2 more examples

   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.

   2010, Paul Hendy, Who Killed Simon Peters?

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

   2012, Victor Pemberton, Leo's Girl

   Synonyms: good as gold

7. countablein pluralslanguncountableA grill (jewellery worn on front teeth) made of gold.

alternative obsolete gould · alternative ☉

1. ☉ (alchemy)

   Synonyms: aurum, E175 when used as a food colouring

comparative golder · superlative goldest · alternative obsolete gould · alternative ☉

1. not comparableusuallyMade of gold.

   a gold chain

   1 more example

   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.

   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

   Synonyms: golden

2. not comparableusuallyHaving the colour of gold.

   gold socks

   3 more examples

   gold sticker

   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.

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

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

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

   Synonyms: golden

3. not comparableusuallybusinessPremium, superior.
4. not comparableusuallybusinessOf a musical recording, having sold 500,000 copies.

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

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

5. not comparableusuallyacademiaSubject 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

   1 more example

   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.

   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 03 Jun 2023

present singular third person golds · participle present golding · participle past golded · past golded · alternative obsolete gould · alternative ☉

1. transitiveTo appear or cause to appear golden.

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

   2011, Harry Nicholson, Tom Fleck, page 250

   4 more examples

   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.

   2010, Tanuja Desai Hidier, Born Confused

   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, D G Compton, A Usual Lunacy

   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.

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

   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.

   2021, Edward Elmer Smith, The Imperial Stars

alternative obsolete gould · alternative ☉

1. not comparablecomputingIn a finished state, ready for manufacturing.

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

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

   2 more examples

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

   2004 November, “Half-Life 2 goes gold”, in HWM, page 10

   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, Jordan Gray, Unearthed, page 6

alternative obsolete gould · alternative ☉

1. not comparableof or referring to a gold version of something

plural Golds

1. An English surname originating as an occupation for a goldsmith or a rich man.

plural Golds

1. A member of the Goldi or Nanai people.