Gold (gōld), n. [AS. gold;
akin to D. goud, OS. & G. gold, Icel. gull, Sw.
& Dan. guld, Goth. gulþ, Russ. & OSlav.
zlato; prob. akin to E. yellow. √49, 234. See
Yellow, and cf. Gild, v. t.]
1. (Chem.) A metallic element,
constituting the most precious metal used as a common commercial
medium of exchange. It has a characteristic yellow color, is one of
the heaviest substances known (specific gravity 19.32), is soft, and
very malleable and ductile. It is quite unalterable by heat,
moisture, and most corrosive agents, and therefore well suited for
its use in coin and jewelry. Symbol Au (Aurum). Atomic weight
196.7.
☞ Native gold contains usually eight to ten per cent of
silver, but often much more. As the amount of silver increases, the
color becomes whiter and the specific gravity lower. Gold is very
widely disseminated, as in the sands of many rivers, but in very
small quantity. It usually occurs in quartz veins (gold quartz), in
slate and metamorphic rocks, or in sand and alluvial soil, resulting
from the disintegration of such rocks. It also occurs associated with
other metallic substances, as in auriferous pyrites, and is combined
with tellurium in the minerals petzite, calaverite,
sylvanite, etc. Pure gold is too soft for ordinary use, and is
hardened by alloying with silver and copper, the latter giving a
characteristic reddish tinge. [See Carat.] Gold also finds use
in gold foil, in the pigment purple of Cassius, and in the
chloride, which is used as a toning agent in photography.
2. Money; riches; wealth.
For me, the gold of France did not
seduce.
Shak.
3. A yellow color, like that of the metal;
as, a flower tipped with gold.
4. Figuratively, something precious or pure;
as, hearts of gold. Shak.
Age of gold. See Golden age, under
Golden. -- Dutch gold, Fool's
gold, Gold dust, etc. See under
Dutch, Dust, etc. -- Gold
amalgam, a mineral, found in Columbia and California,
composed of gold and mercury. -- Gold beater,
one whose occupation is to beat gold into gold leaf. --
Gold beater's skin, the prepared outside
membrane of the large intestine of the ox, used for separating the
leaves of metal during the process of gold-beating. --
Gold beetle (Zoöl.), any small
gold-colored beetle of the family Chrysomelidæ; --
called also golden beetle. -- Gold
blocking, printing with gold leaf, as upon a book
cover, by means of an engraved block. Knight. --
Gold cloth. See Cloth of gold, under
Cloth. -- Gold Coast, a part of the
coast of Guinea, in West Africa. -- Gold
cradle. (Mining) See Cradle,
n., 7. -- Gold diggings,
the places, or region, where gold is found by digging in sand and
gravel from which it is separated by washing. -- Gold
end, a fragment of broken gold or jewelry. --
Gold-end man. (a) A buyer of
old gold or jewelry. (b) A goldsmith's
apprentice. (c) An itinerant jeweler.
"I know him not: he looks like a gold-end man." B.
Jonson. -- Gold fever, a popular mania for
gold hunting. -- Gold field, a region in
which are deposits of gold. -- Gold finder.
(a) One who finds gold. (b)
One who empties privies. [Obs. & Low] Swift. --
Gold flower, a composite plant with dry and
persistent yellow radiating involucral scales, the Helichrysum
Stœchas of Southern Europe. There are many South African
species of the same genus. -- Gold foil,
thin sheets of gold, as used by dentists and others. See Gold
leaf. -- Gold knobs or
knoppes (Bot.), buttercups. -- Gold
lace, a kind of lace, made of gold thread. --
Gold latten, a thin plate of gold or gilded
metal. -- Gold leaf, gold beaten into a
film of extreme thinness, and used for gilding, etc. It is much
thinner than gold foil. -- Gold lode
(Mining), a gold vein. -- Gold
mine, a place where gold is obtained by mining
operations, as distinguished from diggings, where it is extracted by
washing. Cf. Gold diggings (above). -- Gold
nugget, a lump of gold as found in gold mining or
digging; -- called also a pepito. -- Gold
paint. See Gold shell. -- Gold or
Golden, pheasant. (Zoöl.)
See under Pheasant. -- Gold plate,
a general name for vessels, dishes, cups, spoons, etc., made of
gold. -- Gold of pleasure. [Name perhaps
translated from Sp. oro-de-alegria.] (Bot.) A plant
of the genus Camelina, bearing yellow flowers. C.
sativa is sometimes cultivated for the oil of its seeds. --
Gold shell. (a) A composition
of powdered gold or gold leaf, ground up with gum water and spread on
shells, for artists' use; -- called also gold paint.
(b) (Zoöl.) A bivalve shell
(Anomia glabra) of the Atlantic coast; -- called also
jingle shell and silver shell. See Anomia.
-- Gold size, a composition used in applying
gold leaf. -- Gold solder, a kind of
solder, often containing twelve parts of gold, two of silver, and
four of copper. -- Gold stick, the colonel
of a regiment of English lifeguards, who attends his sovereign on
state occasions; -- so called from the gilt rod presented to him by
the sovereign when he receives his commission as colonel of the
regiment. [Eng.] -- Gold thread.
(a) A thread formed by twisting flatted gold over
a thread of silk, with a wheel and iron bobbins; spun gold.
Ure. (b) (Bot.) A small evergreen
plant (Coptis trifolia), so called from its fibrous yellow
roots. It is common in marshy places in the United States. --
Gold tissue, a tissue fabric interwoven with
gold thread. -- Gold tooling, the fixing
of gold leaf by a hot tool upon book covers, or the ornamental
impression so made. -- Gold washings,
places where gold found in gravel is separated from lighter
material by washing. -- Gold worm, a
glowworm. [Obs.] -- Jeweler's gold, an
alloy containing three parts of gold to one of copper. --
Mosaic gold. See under Mosaic.