gold mine
21
3.2
- noun
- /ɡoʊld maɪn/
- Informal
:
filón
- This website serves as a gold mine for delicious vegetarian recipes.
- a potential gold mine
Guys, you are sitting on a gold mine getting excited about little flakes inside some vodka.
- Guys, you are sitting on a gold mine getting excited about little flakes inside some vodka.
- It will be about craft, which is not exactly a gold mine in television, and nevertheless it will be about craft.
- And for the Facebook, it's a gold mine because many brands are doing this and and it's one reason why they are so profitable.
- The question is, how do you go from this to a gold mine?
- And I came up with this headline of something like area male discovers porn gold mine in his front right pocket.
Examples
-
The Disney and More archives are a gold mine of rare artwork, pictures, and videos.
Blog text (8) -
As the caterer for the gala event, Desdemona stood to reap a gold mine of publicity and contacts.
Fiction book (1995) -
I think this place could be a gold mine.
-
The program and its information sources are a gold mine for interested students of all ages.
Academic text (2002) -
Gert had a gold mine of stories about their father.
Fiction book (2001) -
If politically stable, the region is a potential gold mine for small- and medium-sized American companies.
Academic text (1992) -
Pullman has proved to be a gold mine for industrial archaeology.
Academic text (2009) -
Meteorite hunters found a veritable gold mine on frozen Tagish Lake in northwestern Canada.
Academic text (2001) -
The library is a gold mine of information on ancient civilizations.
-
Attending the conference was a gold mine for networking opportunities and new ideas.
Synonyms
25
7.1
A time that brings a large unexpected amount of money or success
12
6.8
A large rich source of valuable things like gold or information
5
4.1
A rich source of useful things or information
A place or thing that has valuable information not easy to find
How Valuable
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'a source of a large amount of something valuable' is directly derivable from combining 'gold' (something valuable) with 'mine' (a place where material is extracted), i.e. a place that produces valuables. This is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common metaphorical composition, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Gold mine comes from the image of a real mine full of gold; because those mines gave a lot of valuable metal, people began to call any place that gives many useful things 'a rich source'. That's why we say the internet is a 'gold mine' of information.