Other forms: gilts
Gilt is a thin covering of gold. Gilt edges, gilt frame, the gilt is wearing off.
It is gold leaf or gold paint over another material, and it is very thin — a book's gilt edges use a fraction of a gram. Take the gilt off the gingerbread means to spoil something's appeal. In finance, gilts are British government bonds, named from the gilt-edged certificates. Note gild, the verb.
1noungiltA thin covering of gold.
“The gilt on the old picture frame had worn away at the corners.”
2noungovernmentA British government bond.
“Pension funds buy gilts because the British government is very unlikely to fail to pay.”
gilt is a gold covering.
Gilt is the old past participle of gild, to cover in gold, from Old English gyldan, from gold.
Built from
of gild#Etymology 1 (“to cover in gold”), thus meaning (something) covered in gold. Ultimately related to gold. Compare feed, which is related (similarly by) to food. Cognate with Dutch vergulden, Icelandic gylla and Faroese gylla.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire