gilded
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Adjective:
- Covered with a thin layer of gold: Describes an object that has been coated or plated with gold, often for decorative purposes.
- Having the appearance of gold; golden in color: Describes something that has a rich, deep yellow or gold-like color.
- Wealthy and luxurious in a showy or ostentatious way: Describes a lifestyle, period, or setting characterized by extravagant wealth and splendor, often masking underlying problems.
- Deceptively attractive; having a pleasing but false appearance: Describes something that appears valuable, beautiful, or virtuous on the surface but is not so in reality.
Examples of Usage
- Covered with gold:
- The gilded frame around the old painting was beginning to tarnish.
- The temple's roof was gilded to shine in the sun.
- Golden in color:
- The morning sun cast a gilded light over the fields.
- Her hair looked gilded in the sunset.
- Wealthy and luxurious:
- The novel is a critique of the gilded society of the late 19th century.
- They lived in a gilded world of private jets and mansions.
- Deceptively attractive:
- The offer seemed generous, but it was just a gilded promise with no substance.
- Beneath its gilded exterior, the company was struggling financially.
Advanced Usage
- "The Gilded Age": A historical term, often capitalized, referring to a period in U.S. history (late 19th century) marked by rapid economic growth, conspicuous wealth, and stark social inequality.
- Mark Twain coined the term "The Gilded Age" to describe an era with a thin, golden veneer covering serious social issues.
- "Gilded cage": An idiom describing a situation of luxurious confinement, where someone has material wealth but lacks freedom or true happiness.
- Her life in the mansion was a gilded cage; she had everything money could buy but no real friends or freedom.
Variants and Related Words
- Gild (verb): To cover with or as if with a thin layer of gold.
- They decided to gild the statue's crown.
- Gilder (noun): A person whose job is to apply gold leaf.
- Gilding (noun): The process or result of applying a gold surface.
- The gilding on the ceiling was restored by experts.
Synonyms
- Gold-plated: Covered with a layer of gold.
- Aureate: Literary term for golden or splendid.
- Ostentatious: Characterized by vulgar or pretentious display; designed to impress.
- Meretricious: Apparently attractive but having no real value; based on pretense.
Related Phrases
- Gild the lily: An idiom meaning to try to improve something that is already beautiful or excellent, often resulting in excess. (Note: This is a common misquotation of Shakespeare's line "to gild refined gold, to paint the lily," which conveys the same idea.)
- Adding more decorations to that cake would be gilding the lily; it's perfect as it is.
Adjective
- made from or covered with gold
- gold coins
- the gold dome of the Capitol
- the golden calf
- gilded icons
- rich and superior in quality
- a princely sum
- gilded dining rooms
- based on pretense; deceptively pleasing
- the gilded and perfumed but inwardly rotten nobility
- meretricious praise
- a meretricious argument
- having the deep slightly brownish color of gold
- long aureate (or golden) hair
- a gold carpet