glden - See: KILL THE GOOSE THAT LAID THE GOLDEN EGG.

glden - adjective (Business World) In business jargon: involving the payment of a large sum of money or other gifts to an employee. Used in a number of phrases humorously modelled on golden handshake (a sum of money paid to an employee on retirement or redundancy), including: golden handcuffs, benefits provided by an employer to make it difficult or unattractive for the employee to leave and work elsewhere; golden hello, a substantial lump sum over and above the salary package, offered by a prospective employer to a senior executive as an inducement to accept a post; golden parachute, a clause in an executive's contract guaranteeing a substantial sum on termination of the contract, even if the employee has not performed well; golden retriever, a sum of money paid to a person who has already left an employer's staff in order to persuade him or her to return. Etymology : All of these phrases rely on the association of gold with riches; golden handcuffs, golden hello, and golden parachute consciously alter the earlier golden handshake, while golden retriever also relies for its humorous effect on the pun with the breed of dog of the same name. History and Usage: The phrase golden handshake dates from the early sixties, but it was not until the late seventies and eighties that the humorous variations on the theme started to be invented: golden handcuffs came first in the second half of the seventies, followed by the golden hello in the early eighties and the golden parachute and golden retriever in the late eighties. The theme of gold is continued in other areas of business and marketing in the eighties, for example in the expression golden bullet for a product that is extremely successful and golden share, a controlling interest in a company (especially one which has recently been privatized), allowing the golden shareholder (usually the government) to veto undesirable policies. Managers...have private health insurance , a better than average pension scheme, a car, and perhaps help with independent school fees from the company. These 'golden handcuffs' are a hangover from the days of labour shortages and income policies and higher tax rates. The Times 4 Apr. 1985, p.
30 It wasn't long before most of RJR Nabisco's top executives 'pulled the rip cords on their golden parachutes'...Mr. Johnson's alone was worth

53 million. New York Times Book Review 21 Jan. 1990, p.
7 Hordes of graduate recruitment managers would appear on one's doorstep clambering and pushing to make the best golden hello/salary/benefits offer. World Outside: Career Guide 1990, p. 6

glden - adj.
1 a made or consisting of gold (golden sovereign). b yielding gold.
2 coloured or shining like gold (golden hair).
3 precious; valuable; excellent; important (a golden memory; a golden opportunity).

golden age 1 a supposed past age when people were happy and innocent.
2 the period of a nation's greatest prosperity, literary merit, etc. golden-ager US an old person. golden balls a pawnbroker's sign. golden boy (or girl) colloq. a popular or successful person. golden calf wealth as an object of worship (Exod. 32). golden chain the laburnum. golden delicious a variety of dessert apple. golden disc an award given to a performer after the sale of 500,000 copies of a record. golden eagle a large eagle, Aquila chrysaetos, with yellow-tipped head-feathers. golden-eye any marine duck of the genus Bucephala. Golden Fleece (in Greek mythology) a fleece of gold sought and won by Jason. golden goose a continuing source of wealth or profit. golden hamster a usu. tawny hamster, Mesocricetus auratus, kept as a pet or laboratory animal. golden handshake colloq. a payment given on redundancy or early retirement. golden hello colloq. a payment made by an employer to a keenly sought recruit. Golden Horde the Tartar horde that overran E. Europe in the 13th c. (from the richness of the leader's tent). Golden Horn the harbour of Istanbul. golden jubilee 1 the fiftieth anniversary of a sovereign's accession.
2 any other fiftieth anniversary. golden mean 1 the principle of moderation, as opposed to excess.
2 = golden section. golden number the number of a year in the Metonic lunar cycle, used to fix the date of Easter. golden oldie colloq. an old hit record or film etc. that is still well known and popular. golden opinions high regard. golden oriole a European oriole, Oriolus oriolus, of which the male has yellow and black plumage and the female has mainly green plumage. golden perch Austral. = CALLOP. golden retriever a retriever with a thick golden-coloured coat. golden rod any plant of the genus Solidago with a rodlike stem and a spike of small bright-yellow flowers. golden rule a basic principle of action, esp. 'do as you would be done by'. golden section the division of a line so that the whole is to the greater part as that part is to the smaller part. Golden State US California. golden syrup Brit. a pale treacle. golden wedding the fiftieth anniversary of a wedding.

goldenly adv. goldenness n.