ormolu

plural ormolus · alternative or-molu · alternative or-moulu · alternative ormulu

1. countableuncountableGolden or gilded brass or bronze used for decorative purposes.

   It is an old-fashioned space of pink-and-green trellis carpet and French ormolu, half-concealed by heavy brocade curtains.

   2023 September 23, Lauren Indvik, “God is in the details”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3

   1 more example

   Had he deemed it "wisest, best," Mr. O'Donagough was not without the means of furnishing a splendid mansion in very showy style, and yet not leaving a single morsel of lacker, or or-molu, unpaid for.

   1840, Frances Trollope, “Practical Information Carefully Obtained, and Promptly Acted upon— […]”, in The Widow Married; […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 2

alternative or-molu · alternative or-moulu · alternative ormulu

1. not comparableMade from golden or gilded brass or bronze.

   At one of the ormolu tables, near a lamp with a pink shade, Gaston insisted on making at least a partial statement.

   1888, Henry James, The Reverberator, Macmillan and Co.

   1 more example

   "He [R. L. Stevenson] took his mother?" I repeated, off guard, and he replied, turning a quick back flip of satisfaction, "Yeah, and his ormolu clock, and all his furniture from Edinburgh."

   1997 May 17, Marianne Macdonald, “Who is Paul Theroux?”, in Independent (UK)

present singular third person ormolus · participle present ormoluing · participle past ormolued · past ormolued · alternative or-molu · alternative or-moulu · alternative ormulu

1. To decorate with gilded ormolu articles.

   But I have seen apartments in the tenure of Americans—men of exceedingly moderate means yet rara aves of good taste—which, in negative merit at least, might vie with any of the or-molued cabinets of our friends across the water.

   1840, Edgar Allan Poe, The Philosophy of Furniture