gilden

Adjective

gilden (comparative more gilden, superlative most gilden)

1. (obsolete) Golden; made of gold.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, Visions of the World's Vanity:

     In summer's day, when Phœbus fairly shone / I saw a Bull as white as driven snow / With gilden horns embowéd like the moon / In a fresh flow'ring meadow lying low

Verb

gilden (third-person singular simple present gildens, present participle gildening, simple past and past participle gildened)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To make or become golden or gilded
   • 1936, International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers' Journal, page 70:

     A little of his pleasure was in the anticipation of seeing Southern Italy in bloom, now that spring is there. But George had a cold. He went to the Moses Taylor hospital. Next week when the great ship docks in Southern Italy, perhaps the sun will be gildening, there will be color and laughter at the dock, for the Italians are a happy race; but George will not be there.

   • 1969, John Rekem, Zobor, the mount and the monastery, page 51:

     Cover of Gospel book with relic of Holy Cross made of Silver, gildened with enamel rosettas.

   • 1992, Stella M. Hryniuk, Twenty Years of Multiculturalism: Successes and Failures, page 137:

     You were mine:
     In your early morning's gildening ray
     I first became aware of bliss and pain, -
     Pure like a pearl.

Usage notes

• Although this verb is fully conjugable, the 3rd-person singular present gildet is by far the commonest form. It is often used as if it were a form of gelten, thus instead of standard gilt.

Conjugation

Descendants

• English: gilden; golden (by way of Middle English golden)
• Scots: gilten (obsolete); gowden (by way of Middle English golden)

See also

• golden

References

• “gī̆lden, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 27 April 2018.