gold fever

English

Noun

gold fever (countable and uncountable, plural gold fevers)

1. A feverish obsession with seeking gold ore; an era (figuratively an epidemic) during which this obsession grips a large number of people.

   Synonyms: (era) gold rush; (era or illness) yellow fever (dated)

   He caught a real bad case of the gold fever that was going around at the time.

   That was during the gold fever, when strangers descended on the town and all the shovels were plum sold out at the general store.

   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 227:

     It appears that a compositor had been engaged for the Northern Territory Times, and for a considerable time the editor seems to have led a comparatively unruffled existence; till in an evil hour the compositor was smitten with gold fever, and struck work.

   • 1931, Ion L. Idriess, Lasseter's Last Ride, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 101:

     Johns worked with the gold-fever in his veins and urged the camels on.

2. (figuratively) An excessive craving for profit.

Related terms

• gold bug
• gold mine
• goldminer

Translations

fever for gold ore

• Danish: guldfeber c
• Dutch: goudkoorts (nl)
• German: Goldfieber (de) n
• Russian: золотая лихорадка (ru) f (zolotaja lixoradka)
• Ukrainian: золота́ лихома́нка f (zolotá lyxománka)

profit craving

• Dutch: goudkoorts (nl)