Pheas·ant n.
 1. Zool. Any one of numerous species of large gallinaceous birds of the genus Phasianus, and many other genera of the family Phasianidæ, found chiefly in Asia.
 Note: ☞ The common pheasant, or  English pheasant (Phasianus Colchicus) is now found over most of temperate Europe, but was introduced from Asia. The ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus torquatus) and the green pheasant (Phasianus versicolor) have been introduced into Oregon.  The golden pheasant (Thaumalea picta) is one of the most beautiful species. The silver pheasant (Euplocamus nychthemerus) of China, and several related species from Southern Asia, are very beautiful.
 2. Zool. The ruffed grouse. [Southern U.S.]
 Note: ☞ Various other birds are locally called pheasants, as the lyre bird, the leipoa, etc.
 Fireback pheasant. See Fireback.
 Gold pheasant, or Golden pheasant Zool., a Chinese pheasant (Thaumalea picta), having rich, varied colors. The crest is amber-colored, the rump is golden yellow, and the under parts are scarlet.
 Mountain pheasant Zool., the ruffed grouse. [Local, U.S.]
 Pheasant coucal Zool., a large Australian cuckoo (Centropus phasianus). The general color is black, with chestnut wings and brown tail. Called also pheasant cuckoo. The name is also applied to other allied species.
 Pheasant duck. Zool. (a) The pintail. (b) The hooded merganser.
 Pheasant parrot Zool., a large and beautiful Australian parrakeet (Platycercus Adelaidensis). The male has the back black, the feathers margined with yellowish blue and scarlet, the quills deep blue, the wing coverts and cheeks light blue, the crown, sides of the neck, breast, and middle of the belly scarlet.
 Pheasant's eye. Bot. (a) A red-flowered herb (Adonis autumnalis) of the Crowfoot family; -- called also pheasant's-eye Adonis. (b) The garden pink (Dianthus plumarius); -- called also Pheasant's-eye pink.
 Pheasant shell Zool., any marine univalve shell of the genus Phasianella, of which numerous species are found in tropical seas. The shell is smooth and usually richly colored, the colors often forming blotches like those of a pheasant.
 Pheasant wood. Bot. Same as Partridge wood (a), under Partridge.
 Sea pheasant Zool., the pintail.
 Water pheasant. Zool. (a) The sheldrake. (b) The hooded merganser.

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 Gold n.
 1. Chem. A metallic element of atomic number 79, constituting the most precious metal used as a common commercial medium of exchange. It has a characteristic yellow color, is one of the heaviest substances known (specific gravity 19.32), is soft, and very malleable and ductile. It is quite unalterable by heat (melting point 1064.4° C), moisture, and most corrosive agents, and therefore well suited for its use in coin and jewelry. Symbol Au (Aurum). Atomic weight 196.97.
 Note: ☞ Native gold contains usually eight to ten per cent of silver, but often much more. As the amount of silver increases, the color becomes whiter and the specific gravity lower. Gold is very widely disseminated, as in the sands of many rivers, but in very small quantity. It usually occurs in quartz veins (gold quartz), in slate and metamorphic rocks, or in sand and alluvial soil, resulting from the disintegration of such rocks. It also occurs associated with other metallic substances, as in auriferous pyrites, and is combined with tellurium in the minerals petzite, calaverite, sylvanite, etc. Pure gold is too soft for ordinary use, and is hardened by alloying with silver and copper, the latter giving a characteristic reddish tinge. [See Carat.] Gold also finds use in gold foil, in the pigment purple of Cassius, and in the chloride, which is used as a toning agent in photography.
 2. Money; riches; wealth.
    For me, the gold of France did not seduce.   --Shak.
 3. A yellow color, like that of the metal; as, a flower tipped with gold.
 4. Figuratively, something precious or pure; as, hearts of gold.
 Age of gold. See Golden age, under Golden.
 Dutch gold, Fool's gold, Gold dust, etc. See under Dutch, Dust, etc.
 Gold amalgam, a mineral, found in Columbia and California, composed of gold and mercury.
 Gold beater, one whose occupation is to beat gold into gold leaf.
 Gold beater's skin, the prepared outside membrane of the large intestine of the ox, used for separating the leaves of metal during the process of gold-beating.
 Gold beetle Zool., any small gold-colored beetle of the family Chrysomelidæ; -- called also golden beetle.
 Gold blocking, printing with gold leaf, as upon a book cover, by means of an engraved block. --Knight.
 Gold cloth. See Cloth of gold, under Cloth.
 Gold Coast, a part of the coast of Guinea, in West Africa.
 Gold cradle. Mining See Cradle, n., 7.
 Gold diggings, the places, or region, where gold is found by digging in sand and gravel from which it is separated by washing.
 Gold end, a fragment of broken gold or jewelry.
 Gold-end man. (a) A buyer of old gold or jewelry. (b) A goldsmith's apprentice. (c) An itinerant jeweler. “I know him not: he looks like a gold-end man.”  --B. Jonson.
 Gold fever, a popular mania for gold hunting.
 Gold field, a region in which are deposits of gold.
 Gold finder. (a) One who finds gold. (b) One who empties privies. [Obs. & Low] --Swift.
 Gold flower, a composite plant with dry and persistent yellow radiating involucral scales, the Helichrysum Stœchas of Southern Europe. There are many South African species of the same genus.
 Gold foil, thin sheets of gold, as used by dentists and others. See Gold leaf.
 Gold knobs or Gold knoppes Bot., buttercups.
 Gold lace, a kind of lace, made of gold thread.
 Gold latten, a thin plate of gold or gilded metal.
 Gold leaf, gold beaten into a film of extreme thinness, and used for gilding, etc. It is much thinner than gold foil.
 Gold lode Mining, a gold vein.
 Gold mine, a place where gold is obtained by mining operations, as distinguished from diggings, where it is extracted by washing.  Cf. Gold diggings (above).
 Gold nugget, a lump of gold as found in gold mining or digging; -- called also a pepito.
 Gold paint. See Gold shell.
 Gold pheasant, or Golden pheasant. Zool. See under Pheasant.
 Gold plate, a general name for vessels, dishes, cups, spoons, etc., made of gold.
 Gold of pleasure. [Name perhaps translated from Sp. oro-de-alegria.] Bot. A plant of the genus Camelina, bearing yellow flowers. C. sativa is sometimes cultivated for the oil of its seeds.
 Gold shell. (a) A composition of powdered gold or gold leaf, ground up with gum water and spread on shells, for artists' use; -- called also gold paint. (b) Zool. A bivalve shell (Anomia glabra) of the Atlantic coast; -- called also jingle shell and silver shell. See Anomia.
 Gold size, a composition used in applying gold leaf.
 Gold solder, a kind of solder, often containing twelve parts of gold, two of silver, and four of copper.
 Gold stick, the colonel of a regiment of English lifeguards, who attends his sovereign on state occasions; -- so called from the gilt rod presented to him by the sovereign when he receives his commission as colonel of the regiment. [Eng.]
 Gold thread. (a) A thread formed by twisting flatted gold over a thread of silk, with a wheel and iron bobbins; spun gold. --Ure. (b) Bot. A small evergreen plant (Coptis trifolia), so called from its fibrous yellow roots. It is common in marshy places in the United States.
 Gold tissue, a tissue fabric interwoven with gold thread.
 Gold tooling, the fixing of gold leaf by a hot tool upon book covers, or the ornamental impression so made.
 Gold washings, places where gold found in gravel is separated from lighter material by washing.
 Gold worm, a glowworm. [Obs.]
 Jeweler's gold, an alloy containing three parts of gold to one of copper.
 Mosaic gold. See under Mosaic.

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 Gold·en a.
 1. Made of gold; consisting of gold.
 2. Having the color of gold; as, the golden grain.
 3. Very precious; highly valuable; excellent; eminently auspicious; as, golden opinions.
 Golden age. (a) The fabulous age of primeval simplicity and purity of manners in rural employments, followed by the silver age, bronze age, and iron age. --Dryden. (b) Roman Literature The best part (B. C. 81 -- A. D. 14) of the classical period of Latinity; the time when Cicero, Cæsar, Virgil, etc., wrote. Hence: (c) That period in the history of a literature, etc., when it flourishes in its greatest purity or attains its greatest glory; as, the Elizabethan age has been considered the golden age of English literature.
 Golden balls, three gilt balls used as a sign of a pawnbroker's office or shop; -- originally taken from the coat of arms of Lombardy, the first money lenders in London having been Lombards.
 Golden bull. See under Bull, an edict.
 Golden chain Bot., the shrub Cytisus Laburnum, so named from its long clusters of yellow blossoms.
 Golden club Bot., an aquatic plant (Orontium aquaticum), bearing a thick spike of minute yellow flowers.
 Golden cup Bot., the buttercup.
 Golden eagle Zool., a large and powerful eagle (Aquila Chrysaëtos) inhabiting Europe, Asia, and North America. It is so called from the brownish yellow tips of the feathers on the head and neck.  A dark variety is called the royal eagle; the young in the second year is the ring-tailed eagle.
 Golden fleece. (a) Mythol. The fleece of gold fabled to have been taken from the ram that bore Phryxus through the air to Colchis, and in quest of which Jason undertook the Argonautic expedition. (b) Her. An order of knighthood instituted in 1429 by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy; -- called also Toison d'Or.
 Golden grease, a bribe; a fee. [Slang]
 Golden hair Bot., a South African shrubby composite plant with golden yellow flowers, the Chrysocoma Coma-aurea.
 Golden Horde Hist., a tribe of Mongolian Tartars who overran and settled in Southern Russia early in the 18th century.
 Golden Legend, a hagiology (the “Aurea Legenda”) written by James de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, in the 13th century, translated and printed by Caxton in 1483, and partially paraphrased by Longfellow in a poem thus entitled.
 Golden marcasite tin. [Obs.]
 Golden mean, the way of wisdom and safety between extremes; sufficiency without excess; moderation.
    Angels guard him in the golden mean.   --Pope.
 -- Golden mole Zool, one of several South African Insectivora of the family Chrysochloridæ, resembling moles in form and habits.  The fur is tinted with green, purple, and gold.
 Golden number Chronol., a number showing the year of the lunar or Metonic cycle.  It is reckoned from 1 to 19, and is so called from having formerly been written in the calendar in gold.
 Golden oriole. Zool. See Oriole.
 Golden pheasant. See under Pheasant.
 Golden pippin, a kind of apple, of a bright yellow color.
 Golden plover Zool., one of several species of plovers, of the genus Charadrius, esp. the European (Charadrius apricarius, syn. Charadrius pluvialis; -- called also yellow plover, black-breasted plover, hill plover, and whistling plover.  The common American species (Charadrius dominicus) is also called frostbird, and bullhead.
 Golden robin. Zool. See Baltimore oriole, in Vocab.
 Golden rose R. C. Ch., a gold or gilded rose blessed by the pope on the fourth Sunday in Lent, and sent to some church or person in recognition of special services rendered to the Holy See.
 Golden rule. (a) The rule of doing as we would have others do to us.  Cf. --Luke vi. 31. (b) The rule of proportion, or rule of three.
 Golden samphire Bot., a composite plant (Inula crithmoides), found on the seashore of Europe.
 Golden saxifrage Bot., a low herb with yellow flowers (Chrysosplenium oppositifolium), blossoming in wet places in early spring.
 Golden seal Bot., a perennial ranunculaceous herb (Hydrastis Canadensis), with a thick knotted rootstock and large rounded leaves.
 Golden sulphide of antimony, or Golden sulphuret of antimony Chem., the pentasulphide of antimony, a golden or orange yellow powder.
 Golden warbler Zool., a common American wood warbler (Dendroica æstiva); -- called also blue-eyed yellow warbler, garden warbler, and summer yellow bird.
 Golden wasp Zool., a bright-colored hymenopterous insect, of the family Chrysididæ. The colors are golden, blue, and green.
 Golden wedding. See under Wedding.

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 golden pheasant
      n : brightly colored crested pheasant of mountains of western
          and central Asia [syn: Chrysolophus pictus]