gold digging

American  

noun

1. the work of digging for gold.

2. gold diggings, a region where digging or seeking for gold, especially by placer mining, is carried on.

---

Etymology

Origin of gold digging

First recorded in 1795–1805

Example Sentences

But as it is, our men are kept busy searching for gold, digging sassafras, and making clapboard, glass, pitch, tar, and soap-ashes to ship back to England, in the hopes that something in the lot will make a profit for the Virginia Company.

From Literature

“It should say gold digging, not good digging.”

From Washington Times

We needn’t dwell on marrying up—gold digging everyone understands—but marrying down is another matter.

From Scientific American

“She is the platinum blond star/heroine/villainess of a Hollywood real-life drama that is two touchdowns better than ‘Days of Our Lives’ on that soap’s most gold digging, betraying, bizarrely gauche day of its life,” is how the Washington Post sportswriter Dave Kindred put it.

From New York Times

Xie, who plays gold digging opera star Kitty Pong, told reporters.

From Reuters