DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan
Sil·ver, a.
1. Of or pertaining to silver; made of silver; as, silver leaf; a silver cup.
2. Resembling silver. Specifically: (a) Bright; resplendent; white. “Silver hair.”
Others, on silver lakes and rivers, bathed
Their downy breast. --Milton.
(b) Precious; costly. (c) Giving a clear, ringing sound soft and clear. “Silver voices.” --Spenser. (d) Sweet; gentle; peaceful. “Silver slumber.” --Spenser.
American silver fir Bot., the balsam fir. See under Balsam.
Silver age Roman Lit., the latter part (a. d. 14-180) of the classical period of Latinity, -- the time of writers of inferior purity of language, as compared with those of the previous golden age, so-called.
Silver-bell tree Bot., an American shrub or small tree (Halesia tetraptera) with white bell-shaped flowers in clusters or racemes; the snowdrop tree.
Silver bush Bot., a shrubby leguminous plant (Anthyllis Barba-Jovis) of Southern Europe, having silvery foliage.
Silver chub Zool., the fallfish.
Silver eel. Zool. (a) The cutlass fish. (b) A pale variety of the common eel.
Silver fir Bot., a coniferous tree (Abies pectinata) found in mountainous districts in the middle and south of Europe, where it often grows to the height of 100 or 150 feet. It yields Burgundy pitch and Strasburg turpentine.
Silver foil, foil made of silver.
Silver fox Zool., a variety of the common fox (Vulpes vulpes, variety argenteus) found in the northern parts of Asia, Europe, and America. Its fur is nearly black, with silvery tips, and is highly valued. Called also black fox, and silver-gray fox.
Silver gar. Zool. See Billfish (a).
Silver grain Bot., the lines or narrow plates of cellular tissue which pass from the pith to the bark of an exogenous stem; the medullary rays. In the wood of the oak they are much larger than in that of the beech, maple, pine, cherry, etc.
Silver grebe Zool., the red-throated diver. See Illust. under Diver.
Silver hake Zool., the American whiting.
Silver leaf, leaves or sheets made of silver beaten very thin.
Silver lunge Zool., the namaycush.
Silver moonfish.Zool. See Moonfish (b).
Silver moth Zool., a lepisma.
Silver owl Zool., the barn owl.
Silver perch Zool., the mademoiselle, 2.
Silver pheasant Zool., any one of several species of beautiful crested and long-tailed Asiatic pheasants, of the genus Euplocamus. They have the tail and more or less of the upper parts silvery white. The most common species (Euplocamus nychtemerus) is native of China.
Silver plate, (a) domestic utensils made of a base metal coated with silver. (b) a plating of silver on a base metal.
Silver plover Zool., the knot.
Silver salmon Zool., a salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) native of both coasts of the North Pacific. It ascends all the American rivers as far south as the Sacramento. Called also kisutch, whitefish, and white salmon.
Silver shell Zool., a marine bivalve of the genus Anomia. See Anomia.
Silver steel, an alloy of steel with a very small proportion of silver.
Silver stick, a title given to the title field officer of the Life Guards when on duty at the palace. [Eng.] --Thackeray.
Silver tree Bot., a South African tree (Leucadendron argenteum) with long, silvery, silky leaves.
Silver trout, Zool. See Trout.
Silver wedding. See under Wedding.
Silver whiting Zool., a marine sciaenoid food fish (Menticirrus littoralis) native of the Southern United States; -- called also surf whiting.
Silver witch Zool., A lepisma.
Gold n.
1. Chem. A metallic element of atomic number 79, constituting the most precious metal used as a common commercial medium of exchange. It has a characteristic yellow color, is one of the heaviest substances known (specific gravity 19.32), is soft, and very malleable and ductile. It is quite unalterable by heat (melting point 1064.4° C), moisture, and most corrosive agents, and therefore well suited for its use in coin and jewelry. Symbol Au (Aurum). Atomic weight 196.97.
Note: ☞ Native gold contains usually eight to ten per cent of silver, but often much more. As the amount of silver increases, the color becomes whiter and the specific gravity lower. Gold is very widely disseminated, as in the sands of many rivers, but in very small quantity. It usually occurs in quartz veins (gold quartz), in slate and metamorphic rocks, or in sand and alluvial soil, resulting from the disintegration of such rocks. It also occurs associated with other metallic substances, as in auriferous pyrites, and is combined with tellurium in the minerals petzite, calaverite, sylvanite, etc. Pure gold is too soft for ordinary use, and is hardened by alloying with silver and copper, the latter giving a characteristic reddish tinge. [See Carat.] Gold also finds use in gold foil, in the pigment purple of Cassius, and in the chloride, which is used as a toning agent in photography.
2. Money; riches; wealth.
For me, the gold of France did not seduce. --Shak.
3. A yellow color, like that of the metal; as, a flower tipped with gold.
4. Figuratively, something precious or pure; as, hearts of gold.
Age of gold. See Golden age, under Golden.
Dutch gold, Fool's gold, Gold dust, etc. See under Dutch, Dust, etc.
Gold amalgam, a mineral, found in Columbia and California, composed of gold and mercury.
Gold beater, one whose occupation is to beat gold into gold leaf.
Gold beater's skin, the prepared outside membrane of the large intestine of the ox, used for separating the leaves of metal during the process of gold-beating.
Gold beetle Zool., any small gold-colored beetle of the family Chrysomelidæ; -- called also golden beetle.
Gold blocking, printing with gold leaf, as upon a book cover, by means of an engraved block. --Knight.
Gold cloth. See Cloth of gold, under Cloth.
Gold Coast, a part of the coast of Guinea, in West Africa.
Gold cradle. Mining See Cradle, n., 7.
Gold diggings, the places, or region, where gold is found by digging in sand and gravel from which it is separated by washing.
Gold end, a fragment of broken gold or jewelry.
Gold-end man. (a) A buyer of old gold or jewelry. (b) A goldsmith's apprentice. (c) An itinerant jeweler. “I know him not: he looks like a gold-end man.” --B. Jonson.
Gold fever, a popular mania for gold hunting.
Gold field, a region in which are deposits of gold.
Gold finder. (a) One who finds gold. (b) One who empties privies. [Obs. & Low] --Swift.
Gold flower, a composite plant with dry and persistent yellow radiating involucral scales, the Helichrysum Stœchas of Southern Europe. There are many South African species of the same genus.
Gold foil, thin sheets of gold, as used by dentists and others. See Gold leaf.
Gold knobs or Gold knoppes Bot., buttercups.
Gold lace, a kind of lace, made of gold thread.
Gold latten, a thin plate of gold or gilded metal.
Gold leaf, gold beaten into a film of extreme thinness, and used for gilding, etc. It is much thinner than gold foil.
Gold lode Mining, a gold vein.
Gold mine, a place where gold is obtained by mining operations, as distinguished from diggings, where it is extracted by washing. Cf. Gold diggings (above).
Gold nugget, a lump of gold as found in gold mining or digging; -- called also a pepito.
Gold paint. See Gold shell.
Gold pheasant, or Golden pheasant. Zool. See under Pheasant.
Gold plate, a general name for vessels, dishes, cups, spoons, etc., made of gold.
Gold of pleasure.
Gold shell. (a) A composition of powdered gold or gold leaf, ground up with gum water and spread on shells, for artists' use; -- called also gold paint. (b) Zool. A bivalve shell (Anomia glabra) of the Atlantic coast; -- called also jingle shell and silver shell. See Anomia.
Gold size, a composition used in applying gold leaf.
Gold solder, a kind of solder, often containing twelve parts of gold, two of silver, and four of copper.
Gold stick, the colonel of a regiment of English lifeguards, who attends his sovereign on state occasions; -- so called from the gilt rod presented to him by the sovereign when he receives his commission as colonel of the regiment. [Eng.]
Gold thread. (a) A thread formed by twisting flatted gold over a thread of silk, with a wheel and iron bobbins; spun gold. --Ure. (b) Bot. A small evergreen plant (Coptis trifolia), so called from its fibrous yellow roots. It is common in marshy places in the United States.
Gold tissue, a tissue fabric interwoven with gold thread.
Gold tooling, the fixing of gold leaf by a hot tool upon book covers, or the ornamental impression so made.
Gold washings, places where gold found in gravel is separated from lighter material by washing.
Gold worm, a glowworm. [Obs.]
Jeweler's gold, an alloy containing three parts of gold to one of copper.
Mosaic gold. See under Mosaic.
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