to turn to gold
3
6.8
- phrasal verb
:
convertirse en oro
- Everything Scott touches turns to gold, and these losers aren't intelligent enough to understand this guy's brilliance.
- turns to gold
And I think everything you touch turns to gold.
- And I think everything you touch turns to gold.
- Everything I touched by God's grace turned to gold.
- So you can, you can say that's BS and you say my stuff is crap, but I believe that what I touch turns to gold.
Examples
-
He is really a superstar; everything that he touches turns to gold," Stark said.
Blog text (24) -
Everything turns to gold in her hands.
Fiction book (1990) -
"Everything you touch turns to gold.
Fiction book (1991) -
How everything still turns to gold.
Blog text (1) -
Everything he touched turned to gold.
-
I wish that everything I touched Would turn to gold, gold, gold
-
He said he feels like everything he touches now turns to gold.
Blog text (18) -
It seems like everything Farrah Abraham touches these days turns to gold.
Blog text (25) -
After last week's horrifying tragedy where I picked Michigan, 38, Northwestern, 31, I spent three days staring at my hands, starving to death while every foodstuff I touched turned to gold, wondering how I had attained such deadly power.
Blog text (19) -
Everything he touches turns to gold, making him the most sought-after consultant in the industry.
Synonyms
54
3.2
To earn a lot of money, often in a short time
To become successful and respected after being unknown or unsuccessful
Antonyms
How Successful
- Informal
3
6.2
3
6.8
19
3.2
229
3.4
27
3.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from 'turn' (change into) + 'gold' (something very valuable), with 'to' serving a grammatical link; the metaphor of becoming gold → becoming valuable is straightforward. This compositional mapping is common cross-linguistically and follows normal English patterns, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily infer the idiomatic sense.
Etymology
The phrase turn to gold comes from old alchemists who tried to turn ordinary metals into gold with a special method. That's why the phrase now means 'become very successful or profitable'.