nugget
- 01 B1 Intermediate
n.a small, solid piece of a precious metal, like gold, found in the earth.
n.a small, naturally occurring lump of a precious metal, especially gold.
Simple“The miner was lucky enough to find a large gold nugget in the river.”
In context“Early prospectors often spent months panning through silt in hopes of discovering a single substantial nugget of gold.”
- 02 A2 Elementary
n.a small piece of chicken or fish that is covered in breadcrumbs and fried.
n.a small, bite-sized piece of poultry or fish, typically breaded and deep-fried.
Simple“The children asked for chicken nuggets and fries for lunch.”
In context“The fast-food chain recently introduced a plant-based nugget to appeal to the growing number of vegetarian customers.”
- 03 B2 Upper Intermediate
n.a short but very useful or interesting piece of information.
n.a brief, isolated, and highly valuable or interesting piece of information or wisdom.
Simple“His speech was full of interesting nuggets of history.”
In context“The documentary provides several fascinating nuggets of information regarding the private life of the reclusive author.”
Synonymstidbitgem - 04 C1 Advanced
n.a new and inexperienced pilot, especially in the military.
n.a slang term for a newly qualified or inexperienced naval aviator or fighter pilot.
Simple“The veteran pilots gave the new nugget a hard time during his first week.”
In context“Landing on a carrier deck at night is a daunting task for any nugget fresh out of flight school.”
- 05 C2 Proficiency
n.a high-quality flower or bud from a cannabis plant.
n.a dense, potent bud of the cannabis plant.
Simple“He showed his friends the dense nuggets he had just bought.”
In context“The quality of the harvest was evident in the size and resin content of the dried nuggets.”
Synonyms - 06 C2 Proficiency
v.to search for or find small pieces of gold.
v.to search for or successfully extract nuggets of precious metal.
Simple“They spent the whole summer nuggeting in the old creek bed.”
In context“Geological surveys indicated the area had been heavily nuggeted during the nineteenth-century gold rush.”
“There were 224 schools (57%) providing meat products such as burgers, nuggets, sausages and goujons more often than the twice a week permitted by the standards.”
Uncertain, first attested in reference to animals & people in Scotland and in reference to ore chunks in Australia. Possibly from southern English nug (“lump, block”) or Scottish knudge/nudge (“short, sturdy person or animal”) + -et (“forming diminutives”) or from rebracketed alteration of an ingot as a ni(n)got.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.