gold plate
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.46 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A thin layer of gold applied to the surface of an object, often by an electrolytic method.
Countable; Uncountable
verb
Of a project, to incorporate costly or otherwise excessive features or refinements unnecessarily, to overengineer.
Transitive verb
verb
Of a law, regulation, etc., to embellish, to extend beyond its intended scope, especially so as to become stifling, or rigid and inflexible.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "Some communities gold-plate their subdivision ordinances because they know that developers, rather than the local voters, are paying."
- "To help reduce the “sticker shock,” stick to what we really need and do not gold plate the requirements."
- "Exceed expectations. This sounds contradictory to the earlier advice not to accept extra or unnecessary tasks and not to gold plate requirements, but it is not."
- "I do not think that we gold plate European regulations although I think others, insurers and other industry bodies, may gold plate on our behalf."
- "Devolved administrations in individual jurisdictions can always choose to gold plate requirements by doing more than a treaty of directive requires, subject to the constitutional provisions under which they were created."
- "In order to find our whether the UK tends to gold plate (and double bank) more than other EU countries – as was suggested by some commentators – the Davidson Review adopted a multi-stage approach."