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  • gold plate
    gold plate
    noun
    tableware or containers made of gold.
  • gold-plate
    gold-plate
    verb (used with object)
    to coat (base metal) with gold, especially by electroplating.

gold plate

1 American  

noun

  • gold plates
    plural
  1. tableware or containers made of gold.

  2. a plating, especially electroplating, of gold.


gold-plate 2 American  
[gohld-playt] / ˈgoʊldˈpleɪt /

verb (used with object)

gold-plated, gold-plating
  1. to coat (base metal) with gold, especially by electroplating.

  2. to incorporate costly features or refinements into (something) unnecessarily.

    The engineers were accused of gold-plating the construction project.


gold plate 1 British  

noun

  1. a thin coating of gold, usually produced by electroplating

  2. vessels or utensils made of gold

"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

gold-plate 2 British  

verb

  1. (tr) to coat (other metal) with gold, usually by electroplating

"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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


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:

That set off a fresh attempt to gold plate banking standards for the second time in a generation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026

Fountain, ballpoint and rollerball pens are available — finished in 24-carat gold plate, rhodium, titanium, sterling silver and gunmetal.

From Washington Times ● Nov. 13, 2023

“I witnessed the transformation of Melania from gold plate into twenty-four karat gold. I believed she had the heart to match.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2020

Really, the only thing the pickers were interested in was costume jewelry, hoping, I suppose, that accidentally mixed in among the cheap paste jewels and gold plate were real Tiffany and Cartier baubles.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 17, 2017

In a maze of colour and guy-ropes, of tent-pegs and tall spears, of chessplayers and sutlers, of tapestried interiors and of gold plate, Arthur of England had sat down to starve his friend.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

The Dolce Hanoi Golden Lake Hotel had a makeover last year using a tonne of the metal to gold-plate everything from bath tubs to toilets, all housed behind a gold exterior.

From Reuters ● Dec. 10, 2021

“It’s not to gold-plate it,” Mr. Schumer said.

From New York Times ● Jul. 30, 2021

On her graduation day, Hayley’s parents presented her with a leather and gold-plate bracelet, etched with Psalm 37:4: “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

From Slate ● Apr. 24, 2016

It meant the loss of one of his favourite lines: "I've got so much gold I gold-plate my gold" but he maintains he is happy with how the music integrates with the action.

From BBC ● Feb. 10, 2012

And the work and sweat Dan had gone through to get that permit, to buy it beg it, steal it, gold-plate it.

From Martyr by Alan Edward Nourse

The first statuettes, introduced at the inaugural ceremony in 1929, were gold-plated solid bronze.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2026

In 2003, to mark his five decades as a radio host, his employer at the time 2UE gave him a gold-plated microphone, which was stolen several years later.

From BBC ● Nov. 9, 2025

But as he arrives back in Washington, the gold-plated receptions abroad are giving way to a shuttered government and deepening voter anxiety about the economy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025

They rolled out everything from gold-plated gifts to golden food during the president’s regional tour.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2025

Then the store gave me another present: a long, thick- linked, gold-plated chain that swung down lower than my coat hem.

From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey

These include industrial waste from microchip manufacturing or from gold-plating processes.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 29, 2024

But that’s before a trio of late stories achieve an alchemical feat, gold-plating the collection’s themes.

From New York Times ● Dec. 7, 2018

They were presented with issues which farmers believed were holding back the industry in Northern Ireland, including the "gold-plating" of regulations by officials and problems obtaining planning permission because of ammonia concerns.

From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2018

Prisk says the government wills to the gold-plating of legislation from Brussels.

From The Guardian ● May 21, 2012

During gold-plating there is a considerable advantage in keeping the electrodes moving or the solution stirred.

From On Laboratory Arts by Richard Threlfall

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