-
gold digger
gold diggernouna person who seeks or digs for gold in a gold field.
-
gold-digger
gold-diggernouna person who prospects or digs for gold
gold digger
Americannoun
-
gold diggers
plural
-
a person who seeks or digs for gold in a gold field.
-
Informal. a woman who associates with or marries a man chiefly for material gain.
noun
-
a person who prospects or digs for gold
-
informal a woman who uses her sexual attractions to accumulate gifts and wealth or advance her social position
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of gold digger
An Americanism dating back to 1820–30
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.
See Examples For:
Suvorova writes about girls in school accusing her mother of being a gold digger, intentionally choosing rich boyfriends that would eventually become rich husbands while they lived in poverty and couch surfed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
Julia, a successful businesswoman in textile design, knows that her father will be alarmed at this impetuous engagement and will want to make sure that Johnny isn’t a gold digger.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 19, 2026
Or the time when she filed a trademark application for the term "gold digger".
From BBC ● Jan. 28, 2026
In the first season, they treat her as if she’s a gold digger.
From Salon ● Apr. 17, 2023
I look around the room for Darius, to see if there’s any hint that he might’ve heard what Layla just said about Janae being a gold digger.
From "Pride" by Ibi Zoboi
![]()
Nothing she has done so far suggests she is a gold-digger.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 13, 2026
"You think - is this is how people are perceiving us? When they say nasty things about him or call me a gold-digger, it irritates me."
From BBC ● Dec. 9, 2025
And he even characterized Heard as a "gold-digger," a "narcissist" and a sociopath.
From Salon ● Apr. 13, 2022
There is a way to be fair to Watson, to scrutinize the story as it develops but reserve final judgment for later, without shrinking the alleged victims down to gold-digger status.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 30, 2021
Remember, boy, it is not to be a romantic gold-digger, which is another name for a born idiot, that I would send you out to California.
From Digging for Gold Adventures in California by R. M. (Robert Michael) Ballantyne
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.