ˈgold-ˌbeater
1. One who beats out gold metal into thin plates or gold-leaf.
| 1415 in York Myst. Introd. 21 Goldbeters. 1483 Act 1 Rich. III, c. 12 §1 The Artificers..that is to say Golde⁓beters [etc.]. c 1515 Cocke Lorell's B. (Percy) 9 Bokell smythes, horse leches, and gold beters. 1671 Boyle Consid. Usef. Exper. Philos. II. x. §4. 36 Some of our Gold-beaters in London. a 1800 Cowper Flatting Mill iii, It is doomed to sustain The thump after thump of a gold-beater's mallet. 1868 Gladstone Juv. Mundi xv. (1870) 522 The gold-beater and..smith, are known to Homer. |
b. goldbeater's skin, a prepared animal membrane employed to separate the leaves of gold-foil during the operation of beating; sometimes used to cover wounds.
| 1710 Steele Tatler No. 266 ¶3 Gold-beaters Skin applied to stop the Blood. 1796 Withering Brit. Plants (ed. 3) IV. 94 Leaves..thin as gold beaters skin. 1852 C. Morfit Tanning & Currying (1853) 540 Goldbeater's skin is prepared from the external or peritoneal coat of the coecum, or blind gut of neat cattle. |
2. (See quot.)
| 1847 Craig, Goldbeaters..a genus of Coleopterous insects, remarkable for their beautiful golden-green and copper colours. |