golden retriever

American

noun

one of an English breed of retrievers having a thick, flat or wavy, golden coat.

golden retriever British

noun

a compact large breed of dog having a silky coat of flat or wavy hair of a gold or dark-cream colour, well-feathered on the legs and tail

"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 golden retriever

First recorded in 1915–20

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.

By scanning the entire genome of each golden retriever, they identified genetic markers that appeared more frequently in dogs displaying particular behavioral traits.

From Science Daily • Mar. 7, 2026

He wasn’t sure when he’d be able to move back home to Altadena with Daisy May, his 13½-year-old golden retriever.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 27, 2025

Poppy, a golden retriever, will be honoured as a "CPR hero" in London on Tuesday.

From BBC • Nov. 25, 2025

Political systems that resemble one another in their fundamental structure and function are like species in the animal kingdom: A chihuahua is not a golden retriever, but they are both dogs.

From Salon • Nov. 1, 2025

Kind of like a golden retriever, as insulting as that is to Bieber Spier.

From "Leah on the Offbeat" by Becky Albertalli

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