Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Gold or silver considered with respect to quantity rather than value.
  • noun Gold or silver in the form of bars, ingots, or plates.
  • noun A heavy lace trimming made of twisted gold or silver threads.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A boss; a stud; a showy metallic ornament either of gold or in imitation of gold, as a button, stud, hook, clasp, buckle, and the like.
  • noun A fringe of thick twisted cords, such as will hang heavily.
  • noun In glass-making, that part of the spheroidal mass of glass which has been attached to the pontil, after being blown and while undergoing the process of fattening into a sheet. When the tube is detached, it is called the bull's-eye (which see).
  • noun A measure of capacity (of salt).
  • noun Gold or silver in the mass; gold or silver smelted and not perfectly refined, or refined but in bars, ingots, or any uncoined form, as plate.
  • noun Uncurrent coin; coin received only at its metallic value.
  • noun Figuratively, gold, as a sordid thing; mere wealth; mammon.
  • noun A mint or assay-office.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Uncoined gold or silver in the mass.
  • noun obsolete Base or uncurrent coin.
  • noun obsolete Showy metallic ornament, as of gold, silver, or copper, on bridles, saddles, etc.
  • noun Heavy twisted fringe, made of fine gold or silver wire and used for epaulets; also, any heavy twisted fringe whose cords are prominent.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A bulk quantity of precious metal, usually gold or silver, assessed by weight and typically cast as ingots.
  • noun obsolete base or uncurrent coin
  • noun obsolete showy metallic ornament, as of gold, silver, or copper, on bridles, saddles, etc.
  • noun obsolete A heavy twisted fringe, made of fine gold or silver wire and used for epaulets; also, any heavy twisted fringe whose cords are prominent.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun gold or silver in bars or ingots
  • noun a mass of precious metal

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, ingot of precious metal, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French billon (from bille, stick; see billon) and from Old French bouillon, bubble on the surface of boiling liquid (from boilir, to boil; see boil).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English bulloin, bullioun, from Anglo-Norman bullion, of obscure origin, perhaps from French bouillon, extending the sense to that of 'melting'. Middle Dutch boelioen ("base metal") seems to have come from the unrelated French billon.

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Examples

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  • A term for the pudenda in Orkney. --Dr. Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary and Supplement, 1841.

    May 10, 2011