gold dustn.
/ˈɡəʊl(d) dʌst/, U.S. /ˈɡoʊl(d) ˌdəst/ 1.
a. Gold in extremely fine particles, the form in which it is commonly obtained in its natural state.
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the world > the earth > minerals > types of mineral > native elements and alloys > [noun] > native gold
gold dust1607
virgin gold1673
sand gold1766
vein gold1834
rhodium gold1844
free gold1854
shot gold1858
flour-gold1869
stream-gold1875
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 506 A mouse which was slit asunder aliue, for certaine gold-dust, which shee had deuoured.
1684 P. Ayres Voy. & Adventures Capt. B. Sharp 42 Here is also Gold-dust, which washes out of a great River that runs into the Sea.
1705 tr. W. Bosman New Descr. Coast of Guinea vi. 81 Dust-Gold, or Gold-Dust..almost as fine as Flower.
1790 Scots Mag. Feb. 73/1 They bring gold dust and massive currency, silver in bars; and they take in return India goods and raw silk.
1843 Jrnl. Royal Asiatic Soc. 7 150 Besides copper ore..the sands contained a considerable portion of gold-dust, magnetic iron sand, traces of silver, platinum, and menaccanite.
1879 H. George Progress & Poverty i. iii. 55 Gold dust passed as currency by weight.
1932 W. Faulkner Light in August xi. 232 Two leather sacks of gold dust and minted coins and crude jewels thrown under the seat like a pair of old shoes.
1966 Chicago Daily Defender 26 May 17/5 A lost city of El Dorado, so rich that the king sprinkled himself with gold dust.
2008 Daily Tel. 7 Jan. 18/2 To mark her debut, Sayuki wore a powder-blue kimono with a white fringe and flecks of gold dust at the hem.
b. figurative and in figurative contexts. Something resembling or likened to gold dust; (originally) money, wealth, financial reward; (now esp.) an intangible or indefinable quality considered to be valuable, precious, or to impart glamour.
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the mind > attention and judgement > attractiveness > [noun] > attractive quality or feature
lust1390
jollity1484
allure1534
Venus1540
attract1593
attraction1599
attractive1607
gold dust1690
charm1697
charmingness1727
take1794
charmfulness1842
style1897
appeal1916
pull factor1938
the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > worth > [noun] > thing of worth
treasurec1200
margaritea1325
druery1340
store1410
relica1425
gemc1560
Jew's eye1593
worthy1598
wealth1650
gold dust1690
nugget1853
white gold1921
1690 Dialogue about French Govt. between Tom & Dick 2/2 Would they have blinded our eyes with Gold-dust, and wheedled the Mayors in the West..with a dose of Loüis d'Ors to deliver up their Towns?
1738 London Evening-post 10–12 Oct. Some of the High Germans seem now to have rubb'd the French Gold-Dust out of their Eyes, and begin to see that the French are but lukewarm in the Emperor's Interest in the pretended Mediation with the Ottoman Port.
1773 J. Boswell Jrnl. 10 Sept. in Jrnl. Tour Hebrides (1785) 201 Let me now gather some gold dust,—some more fragments of Dr Johnson's conversation, without regard to order of time.
1837 H. Martineau Society in Amer. II. 368 The day will come when their eyes will be cleansed from the gold-dust which blinds them.
1950 W. de la Mare Inward Compan. in Coll. Poems (1979) 376 Among the cypresses winds went wandering, Tinged now with gold-dust in the evening hour.
2004 I. Rankin in M. Jakubowski Best Brit. Myst. 2005 23 The [video store] assistant was in his teens, but a good judge of Hollywood's gold dust and dross.
2014 G. Kot I'll take you There xxxiv. 227 In February 1978, the Staples returned to Muscle Shoals studio..in an attempt to stir up some of the gold dust of the Stax Be Altitude era.
c. figurative. Chiefly in similative expressions, as the type of something difficult to find or obtain; esp. in like gold dust.
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the world > time > frequency > infrequency > [noun] > rare or occasional thing
strawberry preaching1548
hen's teeth1700
blue moon1821
gold dust1840
a sometime thing1935
1840 Hampsh. Advertiser & Salisbury Guardian 29 Aug. He had been to see Messrs. King about their property, but it seemed like gold dust.
1850 Scioto (Ohio) Gaz. 23 Mar. Ripe Strawberries have made their appearance in the New York market. A cultivator of the fruit says that ‘his strawberries are like gold dust at present.’
1914 Racine (Wisconsin) Jrnl.-News 14 Oct. 3/2 Tobacco is like gold dust to the soldier.
1984 Globe & Mail (Toronto) (Nexis) 20 Sept. Tickets for the theatre are like gold dust.
1992 V. Glendinning Trollope vi. 125 Unattached young men, especially if they would dance, were gold dust in the country-house world of rural Ireland.
2012 Independent 13 June 26/3 Bookings are gold dust... You won't get near The Fat Duck or Scotts of Mayfair or Locanda Locatelli in weeks.
d. slang. Cocaine.
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the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > an intoxicating drug > [noun] > a) narcotic drug(s) > morphine, cocaine, or heroin > cocaine
cocaine1874
coke1908
happy dust1912
candy1925
nose candy1925
gold dust1931
Charley1935
girl1953
blow1971
rock1973
product1983
rock cocaine1984
crack1985
1931 G. Irwin Amer. Tramp & Underworld Slang 87 Gold Dust, Cocaine, so called from its value and from the happiness and comfort, however fleeting, which it gives to its devotees.
1949 V. J. Monteleone Criminal Slang (rev. ed.) 103 Gold dust... Cocaine.
1977 S. Nicks Gold Dust Woman in ‘Fleetwood Mac’ Rumours (record lyric sheet) Rock on—gold dust woman Take your silver spoon, And dig your grave.
2015 @trishaobannon 15 Mar. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) I tried premium cocaine when I was young, we called it gold dust, in Japan.
2.
a. English regional (Suffolk). The plant biting stonecrop, Sedum acre, which has yellow flowers. rare. Now historical.Now only in lists of alternative names for the plant.
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1839 R. Wake Southwold xi. 220 The common yellow sedum, or wall pepper, called by the country people gold dust.
1947 O. Percival Our Old-fashioned Flowers 91 Sedum acre, Gold Chain, Gold Moss, Gold-dust, etc.
b. A perennial rock plant with evergreen, greyish, hairy leaves and corymbs of yellow flowers, Aurinia saxatilis (family Brassicaceae), native to Europe but widely cultivated elsewhere; (also) a cultivated variety of this plant having darker yellow flowers.
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1865 W. T. Brande & G. W. Cox Dict. Sci., Lit. & Art (new ed.) I. 72/2 One species, A. saxatile, is popularly known as gold-dust, from the bright yellow colour of its blossoms.
1910 A. Lounsberry Gardens near Sea xiv.162 The perennial Alyssum saxatile, or gold dust, makes a more effective edging than the white annual.
2003 Plant Physiol. 132 1146/2 Alyssum (Aurinia saxatilis L. Desv. var. Gold Dust)..obtained from a local supermarket, were surface sterilized and germinated.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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