Language: en
Meaning: (idiomatic)Synonym ofMidas touch(“theabilitytoachievefinancialreward(or, more generally,success)easilyandconsistently”).1853January, “Art. VIII.—1.The House of the Seven Gables; a Romance.By Nathaniel Hawthorne. Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields. 1851. 16mo. pp. 344. 2.The Blithedale Romance.By Nathaniel Hawthorne. Boston: Ticknor, Reed & Fields. 1852. 16mo. pp. 288.[book review]”, inThe North American Review, volume LXXVI, number CLVIII, Boston, Mass.:Little, Brown and Company,[…],→ISSN,→OCLC,pages228–229:In fine, his [Nathaniel Hawthorne's]golden touchis as unfailing as was that of Midas, and transmutes whatever he lays hand upon. [...] [H]e so transforms incidents and transactions of the most trivial character, as to render them grand, pathetic, or grotesque. [...] Hisgolden touch, we would then say, imposes no superficial glitter, but brings out upon the surface, and concentrates into luminous points, the interior gilding, which is attached to the meanest objects and the lowliest scenes by their contact with the realm of sentiment, emotion, and spiritual life.1966, David Sanders, “John Hersey: War Correspondent into Novelist”, inRay B[roadus] Browne, Donald M. Winkelman, Allen Hayman, editors,New Voices in American Studies, West Lafayette, Ind.:Purdue University Studies, published April 1968,→OCLC,page49:On May 8, 1945—V.E. Day—John Herseywon the Pulitzer Prize for his first novel,A Bell for Adano. Twenty years later, with the appearance of his eleventh book,White Lotus, he has been told that while he once aspired to have a silver tongue, he has been given instead agolden touch; that instead of writing literature for all time, he has written books that make the Book-of-the-Month Club. Hersey should not have been discouraged by such remarks.1986,Robert Barnard,Political Suicide(Collins Crime Club)[1], London:Collins,→ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.:Scribner,2014,→ISBN:"He's something of a whiz-kid in City matters, you know. Thegolden touch, in a modest kind of way." He looked around his sitting-room, as if to say there weregolden touchesandgolden touches. "As a matter of fact that happens to be my form of bingo too. So we've been … thrown together, on occasion."1996, F. R. Berchem, “Northward Growth (1875–1914)”, inOpportunity Road: Yonge Street 1860 to 1939, Toronto, Ont.: Natural Heritage/Natural History,→ISBN,page78:The extension [of the Toronto Street Railway's Avenue Road streetcar line] was not only convenient, it also added considerably to the value of Benvenuto and the property around it. When it came to railways,[William] Mackenziehad all of the Scotsman'sgolden touch.2011, Peter Murphy, “Public Relations Guide for New Precrime Officers”, in D. E. Wittkower, editor,Philip K. Dick and Philosophy: Do Androids have Kindred Spirits?(Popular Culture and Philosophy;63), Chicago; La Salle, Ill.:Open Court Publishing Company,→ISBN, section 03.2 (Track-record Evidence Establishes Guilt),page212:What if the precogs have somehow lost theirgolden touchand their predictions are no longer impeccable? What if some errors of commission, or some errors of omission, have slipped in? How can we know that they haven't?2011, June Skinner Sawyers, “I is Someone Else”, inBob Dylan: New York(MusicPlace Series), Berkeley, Calif.: Roaring Forties Press,→ISBN,page33:[John] Hammondhad high expectations for[Bob] Dylan. After all, he had a reputation to maintain. He had a lot riding on Dylan—not the least that he wanted to prove to the executives at Columbia that he still had thegolden touch.2012, Elisha Goldstein, “You Are Imperfect Just as You Are”, inThe Now Effect: How a Mindful Moment can Change the Rest of Your Life, New York, N.Y.:Atria Books,Simon & Schuster,→ISBN, 1st Atria Paperback edition, Atria Paperback,→ISBN,page176:He was respected, climbing up the corporate ladder, and receiving accolades from his colleagues for all his good work. On the outside, he was the guy everyone wanted to be; people said he had thegolden touch. However, [...] he believed his success was like a house of cards that could come crashing down at any moment because, in his mind, he was a fake, and somehow he had been fooling people for a long time.2018June 18,Phil McNulty, “Tunisia1 – 2 England”, inBBC Sport[2], archived fromthe originalon21 April 2019:Luckily forEngland, they have a world-class striker with agolden touchin[Harry] Kane, who was coolness personified to carefully direct in the winner.
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