gilded

adjective

gild·​ed ˈgil-dəd 

1

: covered or tinged with gold or a golden color

gilded icons

The reception room, just off the entryway, features colorful wall and ceiling decorations and a gilded overmantel mirror and matching cornices.

—Stephen May

2

: having a background of wealth and luxury : prosperous, luxurious

Emily Post was raised among New York's gilded elite.

—Susan Berfield

… despite the upper-crust background and the gilded résumé, Bonham Carter is a pretty modern chick off stage.

—Elizabeth Gleick

Examples of gilded in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

As rain turned from mist to torrent, the fashionista crowd swarmed up the marble steps of the Petit Palais, pressing together under a narrow, gilded awning like ants escaping a flood. —Victoria Bousis, Rolling Stone, 21 Apr. 2025

By Biz Carson | Bloomberg In San Francisco’s financial district, the One Montgomery building evokes the opulence of America’s turn of the 20th century gilded age. —Bloomberg, Mercury News, 17 Apr. 2025

Try a gilded version in your guest powder room, add a full-length mirror in dressing spaces and walk-in closets, or go for wall-to-wall mirrors in your home gym. —Nafeesah Allen, Better Homes & Gardens, 16 Apr. 2025

Its art collection, including a 17th-century Belgian portrait in a gilded frame, is fabulous. —Travel + Leisure Editors, Travel + Leisure, 16 Apr. 2025

Word History

Etymology

from past participle of gild entry 1

First Known Use

1540, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for gilded

• builded