gilt

Pluralgilts (some meanings)

1. 1
   noununcountable

   A gold-colored paint or coating applied to a surface to imitate real gold.

   The restorer touched up the gilt along the edges of the picture frame.

   Flecks of gilt still clung to the carved lettering above the door.

   Similargilding

   Note

   Here the word loosens its hold on real metal: any gold-colored paint or coating can be called gilt. Ordinary usage rarely says which is meant, so a gilt frame may carry gold leaf or only gold paint. Where the difference matters, say gold leaf for the true metal layer and gold paint for the imitation.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   A thin layer of gold or other metal applied to a surface; gilding.

   The restorer applied fresh gilt of beaten gold to the altarpiece.

   Centuries of handling had worn the gilt from the manuscript's edges.

   Similargilding

   Note

   The noun at the root of the family, made in English from the verb gild, "to cover in gold," and related to gold itself. It names the thin layer rather than the solid metal, so gilt wears, flakes and rubs off in ways solid gold does not. As a mass noun it takes no plural in this use: the gilt is flaking, worn gilt, fresh gilt.

3. 3
   adjective

   Golden in color; having the appearance of gold.

   Gilt lettering ran across the spine of the leather volume.

   The ballroom's gilt moldings gleamed under the chandeliers.

   Similargilded, golden, gold

   Note

   The participle of gild settled into an adjective and kept the participle's sense of a surface laid on: gilt lettering, gilt moldings. It sits naturally before a noun, as in Joseph C. Lincoln's Mr. Pratt's Patients (1913), where a man produces cigars "with gilt bands on them." When it is compared, it takes more and most rather than -er and -est.

4. 4
   verb

   Past tense and past participle of gild. Less common than gilded, especially as a past tense.

   The edges of each page were gilt by hand in the bindery.

   The old mirror had been gilt by a master's hand.

   Note

   An irregular past for gild, following the same pattern as built from build, and spelled exactly like the adjective. It carries every sense of the verb, including the figurative ones. In H. L. Brækstad's 1886 translation of Asbjørnsen's Folk and Fairy Tales, the rising sun "gilt the hill tops," lending them brightness rather than metal.

5. 5
   nounUKcountable

   A bond issued by the British government, regarded as a low-risk, fixed-interest investment.

   Investors flocked to gilts as the stock market grew more volatile.

   The fund manager added a long-dated gilt to balance the portfolio.

   Note

   Finance's shorthand for gilt-edged, used in the UK for government bonds. It is most often heard in the plural: Kalyeena Makortoff and Sarah Butler, writing in 2022, explain UK government bonds simply as gilts. The singular names a single issue, as in a long-dated gilt. Gilt alone always points to British debt, so use government bond for any other country.

6. 6
   noundialectalUKcountable

   A young female pig that is old enough, or almost old enough, for her first breeding.

   Among cattle the equivalent is a heifer: a young female that has not yet had offspring.

   The gilt was moved to a separate pen before farrowing.

   Breeders select gilts with strong frames and good temperaments.

   Note

   A different word entirely, with no link to gold. It comes from Middle English gilt or gylt and Old Norse gyltr, and its relatives are geld and yelt. It belongs to regional British farm speech and marks a female pig at a particular stage: young, and at or approaching first breeding. Outside that setting, a reader may need the plainer phrase young female pig.

7. 7
   nounslanguncountable

   Money; cash.

   After the sale he had more gilt than he knew what to do with.

   They were always scrounging for a bit of gilt.

   Similarcash, money, dough, dosh

   Note

   Slang that turns a gold surface into cash. Shakespeare gives it a memorable outing in Henry V, where traitors conspire "for the gilt of France,—O guilt indeed!" The pun on guilt is the point of the line. Treat it as slang rather than a neutral word for money; it suits playful or literary writing better than a plain statement about pay.

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