gold
(goʊld )
Word forms: golds
1. uncountable noun A2
Gold is a valuable, yellow-coloured metal that is used for making jewellery and ornaments, and as an international currency.
...a sapphire set in gold.
The price of gold was going up.
...gold coins.
2. uncountable noun A2
Gold is jewellery and other things that are made of gold.
We handed over all our gold and money.
3. colour A2
Something that is gold is a bright yellow colour, and is often shiny.
I'd been wearing Michel's black and gold shirt.
4. variable noun
A gold is the same as a gold medal. [informal]
His ambition was to win gold.
This Saturday the British star is going for gold and a new world record.
5. good as gold phrase
If you say that a child is being as good as gold, you are emphasizing that they are behaving very well and are not causing you any problems. [emphasis]
The boys were as good as gold on our walk.
6. a heart of gold phrase
If you say that someone has a heart of gold, you are emphasizing that they are very good and kind to other people. [emphasis]
They are all good boys with hearts of gold. They would never steal.
7. pot of gold phrase
Money that someone hopes they will get in the future is sometimes referred to as a pot of gold. Also a crock of gold, mainly in British English.
You can't expect to find a pot of gold in a day.
8. See also fool's gold
9. to strike gold phrase
If you strike gold, you find, do, or produce something that brings you a lot of money or success. [journalism]
The company has struck gold with its new holiday development.
10. worth your weight in gold phrase
If you say that someone or something is worth their weight in gold, you are emphasizing that they are so useful, helpful, or valuable that you feel you could not manage without them. [emphasis]
Any successful manager is worth his weight in gold.
Image of gold
© Roman Bodnarchuk, Shutterstock
Idioms:
someone has a heart of gold
said to mean that someone is kind and generous, and enjoys helping other people
He helped all the local sporting organizations – bowls, hockey, rugby and tennis. He had a heart of gold.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
good as gold
behaving very well
They were both in the playroom as good as gold.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
strike gold
to find, do or produce something that brings you a lot of money or success
The company has struck gold with its new holiday development.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
a pot of gold
a lot of money that someone hopes to get in the future
When he went to Hamburg, he should have said he was going to make his pot of gold. Instead, he said he was going to improve his football.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
gold dust [British]
something that is very difficult to get
Leg make-up was essential during the War when stockings were like gold dust.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
all that glitters is not gold [British]
said to mean that someone or something may not be as good or as valuable as they first appear
All that glitters is not gold and it's a good idea to delay finalizing any important agreements, otherwise you may jeopardize a valuable relationship.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
fool's gold
a plan for making money that is foolish and sure to fail
The Chancellor dismissed as `pure fool's gold' the idea that devaluing the pound could assist the British economy.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow
something that will be very difficult to achieve in reality, although you dream of getting it
I would rather be honest with people than mislead them that there is going to be some pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
worth your weight in gold
very useful, helpful, or valuable
Successful television is about having ideas. People with ideas are worth their weight in gold.
Easy Learning Idioms Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Collocations:
gold jewellery gold lettering gold medallion gold metal gold miner gold nugget gold ore gold pendant gold price gold ring gold thread gold watch heavy gold pale gold pure gold solid gold steal the gold win gold winner of the gold
They swooped after highprofile campaigns offering instant cash for gold jewellery as the price of the precious metal soars.
The Sun
There, gold jewellery, ingots and coins are a favourite wedding and festival gift.
Times, Sunday Times
The firm, which loans cash against gold jewellery and diamonds, saw annual growth surge by ten per cent on the back of soaring gold prices.
The Sun
I gave a trafficker all my family's wealth - including my grandma's gold jewellery - to smuggle me out.
Times, Sunday Times
Finish off with some gold jewellery and a delicate watch.
The Sun
Parcels all neatly wrapped, labels carefully inscribed in gold lettering?
Times, Sunday Times
No matter how portentous the title, or how inlaid the gold lettering, ultimately all books end up here, selling for 50p.
Times, Sunday Times
The books were then hand-stitched and embossed with gold lettering, creating beautiful books.
Times, Sunday Times
My lusty eye also eventually fell on a large, battered, red handbag with distinctive gold lettering - but, sadly, that went for more than 242,500, way over my budget.
Times, Sunday Times
Inside the main studio, names are picked out in gold lettering on roll-ofhonour boards recording 'all the immortals who have passed through these portals'.
Times, Sunday Times
He gave her the only piece of jewellery she treasured, a large gold medallion inscribed with an eagle and a nymph.
Times, Sunday Times
He pings his gold medallion with a flick.
Times, Sunday Times
If all are completed, a gold medallion will be given.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The main badge consists of a gold medallion in the form of a stylized trillium, the official provincial flower.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
He did not compete for the gold medallion.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The lid also features a gold metal plaque and his emblem, including two boars.
The Sun
It's available in three colours, with a stained bronze, satin chrome or satin gold metal finish.
Times, Sunday Times
But they've added wicker chairs, woven lampshades, houseplants, geometric tiles and lights on gold metal palm fronds.
Times,Sunday Times
He then threw a square gold metal tin which hit my knee and fell to the floor.
The Sun
It has won one silver and one gold metal in international competitions.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The gold miner eased 2¾p to 105¾ yesterday.
Times, Sunday Times
The gold miner fell 31 per cent after it warned of lower production and higher costs.
Times, Sunday Times
Before, investors were largely confined to making indirect investments by, say, buying shares in a gold miner.
Times, Sunday Times
He went with the tomato, and as they tucked in learnt that his host was an illegal gold miner, which explained his anxiety.
Times,Sunday Times
The first toe was said to have been accidentally swallowed by a gold miner in 1980, after which a series of replacements were found.
Times, Sunday Times
Each square you drill counts as one of your ten attempts to find a gold nugget or a treasure chest.
The Sun
Which of them donated the plot for a story about a gold nugget to a younger author?
The Times Literary Supplement
It adds that the awnings were the huge dryers which tended the gold nugget and coffee.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The 1925 excavation revealed coins from 1797, 1825, and 1840, a gold nugget, and assorted navigational pieces.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Instantly his body turns into a solid gold nugget.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
He spends most of each day in muddy water, pulling out gold ore.
Times, Sunday Times
The cyanide solution was used to separate gold ore from surrounding rock.
Houston Chronicle
More than 3kg of gold, 520 tonnes of gold ore, 4,876 diamonds and 20 emeralds were seized.
Times, Sunday Times
Equipment caught fire, the wrong parts were installed in machinery, rock crushers were found wanting and large deposits of highly carbonated gold ore — not good, geologists mutter — were encountered.
Times, Sunday Times
Organic carbon present in gold ore may adsorb dissolved gold-cyanide complexes in much the same way as activated carbon.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
She unfolds a velvet cloth with great care, to reveal a gold pendant and two earrings.
Times, Sunday Times
The only colourful splashes are the funky gold pendant lamps above the dining room table, and glamorous gold-leaf tiles in the master bathroom below.
Times, Sunday Times
She also sports a gorgeous gold pendant.
Times, Sunday Times
The bounty included a pair of the maharani's gold pendant earrings that were sold off privately.
Times, Sunday Times
As she digs, she discovers a wooden box containing a beautiful gold pendant in the shape of a sundial.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Yet the action of the gold price this year has been decidedly odd, and it has given rise to some equally odd speculation.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
The easiest and cheapest way to track the gold price is via an exchange traded fund.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
Miners in general were strong on a soaring gold price and firm prices for other metals.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
Yet the gold price has been going the wrong way.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
He says:'This fund tracks the gold price and holds physical gold rather than using derivatives to try to track the price.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Hitting the three-inch diameter gold ring at the centre wins a maximum ten points.
The Sun
Similarly, the star believes that if you haven't been playing away from home, you should be 'given a gold ring' for showing restraint.
The Sun
Less than a week later she has been reunited with the £9,000 gold ring thanks to the efforts of an experienced metal detectorist.
Times,Sunday Times
She also bought a gold ring for 3, so she didn't quite spend all her money.
Times, Sunday Times
And you wear a gold ring on the middle toe of your left foot that you never ever take off.
The Sun
The tiny models of the lagoon, the pen-and-ink drawings of ships on delicate paper and threadbare fabric motifs of bees embroidered in gold thread.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
A basic abaya sells for 70, but an elaborate one with real gold thread can cost 6,000.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
Each has a 24 carat fine gold thread winding around it.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
Caught in the sun, the fishing line was a gold thread snaking over the river, sending a fly flitting.
Times, Sunday Times (2017)
That old sundowner who talked to you about it, was he the one who walked off with Ma's gold watch?
THE BLACK OPAL
The chunky gold watch on his wrist was the only nod to his nickname.
The Sun (2015)
Not ornate, not bejewelled, a simple circle of heavy gold etched with runes.
TIME OF THE WOLF
He wears heavy gold chains and bracelets, is well over 6ft and fairly broad.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
On his wrist a heavy gold ( goldish, Liz persuaded herself meanly) bracelet.
DEATH AND TRANSFIGURATION
He wore a long-sleeved white shirt with cuffs pinched by heavy gold studs, no tie, his neck at his throat ageing him.
A DARKENING STAIN (2002)
Giant boulders flanked a perfect crescent of pale gold, lapped by turquoise waves on one side and shadowed by enormous weeping trees on the other.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
Made in Germany, these paraffin-fuelled, steel and glass hurricane lamps are available in acid yellow, cobalt blue, rust, tangerine and pale gold.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
The trees in Central Gardens were resplendent with autumn foliage, their colours ranging from vermilion to palest gold.
THE GOSPEL MAKERS
You welcomed him with rich blessings and placed a crown of pure gold on his head.
Christianity Today (2000)
Originally covered in sheets of pure gold, it housed their most sacred object, the golden disc of the sun.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
The President and his impossibly glamorous wife held the room from the moment they stepped through an arched stone doorway flanked by statues of pure gold.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
I enjoyed her juxtaposition of the two main stories of the day and her final paragraph was pure gold.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
The southern shore of this tiny island is five miles of pure gold.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
But there weren't any obvious valuables such as diamond encrusted letter openers or solid gold vases that I could tuck into a case.
SOMEBODY (2002)
It was a solid gold gammadion pendant on a matching chain, one of those worn by every professed Brother of Zeth.
IRONCROWN MOON: PART TWO OF THE BOREAL MOON TALE (2004)
China and other strong economies such as the oil-rich nations have the solid gold bar.
The Sun (2010)
It is made of solid gold and a new one is made each year for the winning owner to keep.
The Sun (2010)
She decided to get him a solid gold tie clip with diamonds on the ends.
WEB OF DREAMS
They earn little and sometimes militia fighters steal the gold they find.
The Star (South Africa)
Another witness claimed that the spray was used to disable a person and steal their gold chain.
Times, Sunday Times
He and his accomplices steal the gold that the boss had been smuggling at the mill.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Gemma, however, intends to steal the gold for himself and use it to raise the largest ninja army ever, ultimately ruling the country through fear and intimidation.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
He had already won gold in the 100m breaststroke and 4 x 100m mixed medley relay.
Times, Sunday Times (2018)
At the worlds she won gold in the keirin and sprint and catapulted herself into the frontline of British track cyclists.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
He was one of the favourites to win gold but finished tenth.
The Sun (2016)
It was a huge relief to win gold again.
The Sun (2012)
People often ask us for a recommendation and the fact that we could offer a fellow gold winner makes such a good impression.
Times, Sunday Times
Pitch-wise, that's a solid gold winner.
Times, Sunday Times
He already has a fistful of gold winner's rings and wants to start filling up his other hand.
Times, Sunday Times
Thousands of fans liked the 10,000m and 5,000m gold winner's clip.
The Sun
Translations:
Chinese: 金
Japanese: 金 金属