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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

The biggest check on the insurance gold rush: the risks.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026

Johannesburg -- reported to be the richest city in Africa -- was born from a gold rush in the 1880s.

From Barron's ● Sep. 1, 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

For others, the gold rush has created opportunities without requiring them to dig.

From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026

Gates compared the Internet to the gold rush, the idea being that more money was made selling Levi’s, picks, shovels, and hotel rooms to the gold diggers than from digging up gold from the earth.

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman

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