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

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

gold rushes

plural

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.

See Examples For:

gold rush

Did a goat herder's lucky $200 nugget spark a gold rush in western Kenya?

From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026

The booming stock market and gold rush in artificial intelligence are also adding to growth of a resilient U.S. economy.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026

The gold rush for artificial intelligence has already created a windfall for the state from a surge in income tax collected on stock market gains.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026

The newfound fortunes can haunt those who left SK Hynix and Samsung just before the memory-chip gold rush.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 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