Library / English Dictionary

GILD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: gilt   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A formal association of people with similar interests

Example:

men from the fraternal order will staff the soup kitchen today

Synonyms:

club; gild; guild; lodge; order; social club; society

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("gild" is a kind of...):

association (a formal organization of people or groups of people)

Meronyms (members of "gild"):

club member (someone who is a member of a club)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gild"):

service club (a club of professional or business people organized for their coordination and active in public services)

boat club; yacht club (club that promotes and supports yachting and boating)

turnverein (a club of tumblers or gymnasts)

sorority (a social club for female undergraduates)

slate club (a group of people who save money in a common fund for a specific purpose (usually distributed at Christmas))

rowing club (a club for rowers)

racket club (club for players of racket sports)

jockey club (a club to promote and regulate horse racing)

investors club (a club of small investors who buy and sell securities jointly)

hunt; hunt club (an association of huntsmen who hunt for sport)

golf club (a club of people to play golf)

glee club (a club organized to sing together)

frat; fraternity (a social club for male undergraduates)

country club (a suburban club for recreation and socializing)

chess club (a club of people to play chess)

chapter (a local branch of some fraternity or association)

bookclub (a club that people join in order to buy selected books at reduced prices)

athenaeum; atheneum (a literary or scientific association for the promotion of learning)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Decorate with, or as if with, gold leaf or liquid gold

Synonyms:

begild; engild; gild

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "gild" is one way to...):

adorn; beautify; decorate; embellish; grace; ornament (make more attractive by adding ornament, colour, etc.)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

gilder (someone whose occupation is to apply an overlay of gold or gilt)

gilding (a coating of gold or of something that looks like gold)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The general, perceiving how her eye was employed, began to talk of the smallness of the room and simplicity of the furniture, where everything, being for daily use, pretended only to comfort, etc.; flattering himself, however, that there were some apartments in the Abbey not unworthy her notice—and was proceeding to mention the costly gilding of one in particular, when, taking out his watch, he stopped short to pronounce it with surprise within twenty minutes of five!

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

My spirits were elevated by the enchanting appearance of nature; the past was blotted from my memory, the present was tranquil, and the future gilded by bright rays of hope and anticipations of joy.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He took it quickly out, but it was already quite gilded.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

A gilt harp, blotched with many stains and with two of its strings missing, was tucked under one of his arms, while with the other he scooped greedily at his platter.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Perhaps Meg felt, without understanding why, that they were not particularly cultivated or intelligent people, and that all their gilding could not quite conceal the ordinary material of which they were made.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Again we passed the strange rooms, the gilded monsters, and the gorgeous footmen, and it was with relief that I found myself out in the open air once more, with the broad blue sea in front of us, and the fresh evening breeze upon our faces.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Some time in the afternoon I raised my head, and looking round and seeing the western sun gilding the sign of its decline on the wall, I asked, "What am I to do?" But the answer my mind gave—"Leave Thornfield at once"—was so prompt, so dread, that I stopped my ears.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The whole party rose accordingly, and under Mrs. Rushworth's guidance were shewn through a number of rooms, all lofty, and many large, and amply furnished in the taste of fifty years back, with shining floors, solid mahogany, rich damask, marble, gilding, and carving, each handsome in its way.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Roasted peacocks, with the feathers all carefully replaced, so that the bird lay upon the dish even as it had strutted in life, boars' heads with the tusks gilded and the mouth lined with silver foil, jellies in the shape of the Twelve Apostles, and a great pasty which formed an exact model of the king's new castle at Windsor—these were a few of the strange dishes which faced him.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But much as she liked to write for children, Jo could not consent to depict all her naughty boys as being eaten by bears or tossed by mad bulls because they did not go to a particular Sabbath school, nor all the good infants who did go as rewarded by every kind of bliss, from gilded gingerbread to escorts of angels when they departed this life with psalms or sermons on their lisping tongues.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)