Definition

1. 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

1. made from or covered with gold
   • gold coins
   • the gold dome of the Capitol
   • the golden calf
   • gilded icons
2. rich and superior in quality
   • a princely sum
   • gilded dining rooms
3. based on pretense; deceptively pleasing
   • the gilded and perfumed but inwardly rotten nobility
   • meretricious praise
   • a meretricious argument
4. having the deep slightly brownish color of gold
   • long aureate (or golden) hair
   • a gold carpet