Etymology From French or moulu (literally “ground gold”).
1
Golden or gilded brass or bronze used for decorative purposes.
Had he deemed it "wisest, best," Mr. O'Donagough was not without the means of furnishing a splendid mansion in very showy style, and yet not leaving a single morsel of lacker, or or-molu, unpaid for.1840, Frances Trollope, “Practical Information Carefully Obtained, and Promptly Acted upon— […]”, in The Widow Married; […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 2:
It is an old-fashioned space of pink-and-green trellis carpet and French ormolu, half-concealed by heavy brocade curtains.2023 September 23, Lauren Indvik, “God is in the details”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 3:
ormolu
adj
Etymology From French or moulu (literally “ground gold”).
1
Made from golden or gilded brass or bronze.
At one of the ormolu tables, near a lamp with a pink shade, Gaston insisted on making at least a partial statement.1888, Henry James, The Reverberator, Macmillan and Co.:
"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."1997 May 17, Marianne Macdonald, “Who is Paul Theroux?”, in Independent (UK):
ormolu
verb
Etymology From French or moulu (literally “ground gold”).
1
To decorate with gilded ormolu articles.
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.1840, Edgar Allan Poe, The Philosophy of Furniture: