Showing results for gold rush. Search instead for Gold+Rush.

gold rush

American

noun

a large-scale and hasty movement of people to a region where gold has been discovered, as to California in 1849.

gold rush British

noun

a large-scale migration of people to a territory where gold has been found

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of gold rush

An Americanism dating back to 1875–80

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The surge of development here mirrors a data center gold rush across Texas over the past year that is outpacing the speed of regulation.

From Salon • Jun. 6, 2026

Rapid advances in AI systems since text generator ChatGPT's 2022 breakthrough have sparked a gold rush for tech companies.

From Barron's • May 28, 2026

Now, as Big Tech corners the hardware market and drives up component prices, gamers worry that the AI gold rush is coming at their direct expense.

From MarketWatch • May 23, 2026

First author Jayson Ball describes the current moment as a "gold rush of neuroscience," driven by advanced tools that allow scientists to precisely control specific groups of brain cells.

From Science Daily • Apr. 27, 2026

Iditarod is a ghost town, just a few shacks left over from the gold rush, when ten thousand people lived there.

From "Black Star, Bright Dawn" by Scott O'Dell

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023