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Definition 2024


gold_leaf

gold leaf

English

Noun

gold leaf (uncountable)

  1. Gold beaten into a thin sheet.
    • 1697, Remarks Upon a Scurrilous Libel:
      But this Cobweb Lawn is too thin; a gold Leaf to cover the forgoing poison: For nothing is more plain, that he means, that the King is the Head Conspirator in all this slavery []
    • 1712, The miscellaneous works of Oliver Goldsmith, volume 4, page 11:
      The streets of Nankin are sometimes strewed with gold leaf; very different are those of London: in the midst of their pavements, a great lazy puddle moves muddily along []
    • 1860 January 7, The Chemical News, page 55:
      I cannot take a better illustration of this than that of gold leaf, because it brings before us the reason of this apparent difference in the time of the fall.
    • 1956, Daniel Varney Thompson, The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting:
      After the gesso was quite smooth and even it was covered with thin layers of tempered bole, to form a colour ground under the gold leaf, and to provide a sleek, lustrous cushion for the under side of the gold to rest on while the burnisher was pressing on the top.
    • 2001, Milton Ohring, Materials Science of Thin Films, page xix:
      Today, gold leaf can be machine-beaten to 0.1 micron and to 0.05 micron when beaten by a skilled craftsman.

Derived terms

  • gold-leaf electrometer
  • gold-leaf electroscope
  • gold-leaf galvanoscope

Translations