ormolu

English edit

From French or moulu (literally “ground gold”).

ormolu (countable and uncountable, plural ormolus)

Golden or gilded brass or bronze used for decorative purposes.
- 2023 September 23, Lauren Indvik, “God is in the details”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 3:
  It is an old-fashioned space of pink-and-green trellis carpet and French ormolu, half-concealed by heavy brocade curtains.

ormolu (not comparable)

Made from golden or gilded brass or bronze.
- 1888, Henry James, The Reverberator, Macmillan and Co.:
  At one of the ormolu tables, near a lamp with a pink shade, Gaston insisted on making at least a partial statement.
- 1997 May 17, Marianne Macdonald, “Who is Paul Theroux?”, in Independent (UK)‎^[1]:
  "He [R. L. Stevenson] took his mother?" I repeated, off guard, and he replied, turning a quick back flip of satisfaction, "Yeah, and his ormolu clock, and all his furniture from Edinburgh."

ormolu (third-person singular simple present ormolus, present participle ormoluing, simple past and past participle ormolued)

To decorate with gilded ormolu articles.
- 1840, E.A.Poe, The Philosophy of Furniture:
  But I have seen apartments in the tenure of Americans—men of exceedingly moderate means yet rara aves of good taste—which, in negative merit at least, might vie with any of the or-molued cabinets of our friends across the water.