gold dust
10
4.2
- noun
- /ɡoʊld dʌst/
- Carson pointed out a tiny brass scale, a miniature of the one used by blindfolded Justice; soon they'd learn that it was used for weighing gold dust.
- sprinkled with gold dust
- source of gold dust
Examples
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The artist sprinkled gold dust on the painting to give it an extra shimmer and richness.
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It's amazing how a little gold dust can just change everything.
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When I had this vision, it seemed like the whole sky opened up, filling the barn with gold dust.
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They say you got away with 7,000 in gold dust.
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In the air around the mine shafts, it seemed, there was so much gold dust you only needed to brush off your jacket to get rich.
Fiction book (1997) -
He also went to California to the gold rush and set up a bank for the miners with their little bags of gold dust, made money there.
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The Muyska indeed used imported gold dust to coat the skin of their Chieftain, but there was no real gold in their lands.
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The prospector carefully sifted through the riverbed, hoping to find some gold dust among the pebbles.
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After hours of searching, they finally collected a small pouch of gold dust from the stream.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A soft yellow metal that is valuable and used for jewelry and money
How Fine
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'fine particles of gold' is directly and compositionally derived from combining 'gold' (the metal) with 'dust' (tiny particles). This straightforward noun+noun compound follows common cross-linguistic patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand the phrase.
Etymology
Gold dust originally means tiny flakes of real gold — small particles called dust that are rare and worth a lot. Because these little bits were so valuable and hard to find, people began using gold dust to talk about anything 'very valuable' or 'in short supply'.