strike gold
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]As success in a gold rush was measured by whether gold was found.
Verb
[edit]strike gold (third-person singular simple present strikes gold, present participle striking gold, simple past struck gold, past participle struck gold or (rare) stricken gold)
- (literally) To find gold.
- 1892 [April], A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. X.—The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor.”, in Geo[rge] Newnes, editor, The Strand Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly, volume III (January to June), number [16], London: George Newnes, Limited, […], page 390, column 2:
- “And how did he make his money?”
“In mining. He had nothing a few years ago. Then he struck gold, invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds.”
- 1916, Zane Grey, chapter 14, in The Border Legion[1]:
- Jim Cleve had gone to an unfrequented part of the gulch, for no particular reason, and here he had located his claim. The very first day he struck gold.
- (informal) To be lucky, to win or be successful.
- 1988, Douglas C. Lyons, “What to expect in Seoul”, in Ebony:
- Danny Manning and Edwin Moses quickly come to mind for fans who want American athletes to strike gold this summer.
- 1995, “Holiday Glitter”, in New York Magazine[2]:
- Shopping for jewelry is just like finding love: When the right one comes along, you'll know it. What follows is a list of sources where buyers are most likely to strike gold.
- 2003, “Wife Winds $872,884.09 at Online Casino”, in Weekly World News[3]:
- Michele S. is one in a long line of Progressive Jackpot players to strike gold at Lucky Nugget Online Casino
- 2023 August 16, Erin Griffith, “The Desperate Hunt for the A.I. Boom’s Most Indispensable Prize”, in The New York Times[4], →ISSN:
- Two weeks ago, he struck gold: Docugami secured access to the computing power it needed through a government program called Access, which is run by the National Science Foundation, a federal agency that funds science and engineering.
Translations
[edit]to find gold
|
to be lucky, to win, to be successful
See also
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “strike gold”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
- “strike gold”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- “strike gold” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
- “strike gold” (US) / “strike gold” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.