gold leaf 
noun [mass noun]
Gold that has been beaten into a very thin sheet, used in gilding.Participants will prepare a panel or wall which they will work on over several days and will learn how to prepare paints, pigments, and gold leaf for application and ornament....
- Two final works from the Glassell collection are wood carvings covered with gold paint rather than gold leaf.
- All three statues use a layer of lacquer between the wood and the exterior coat of gold leaf or pigment.
verb (gold-leaf) [with object]
Apply a layer of gold leaf to.It was gold-leafed completely, from the surface down to the eagle-claw legs....
- It would cost the council £100 to buy the old lamps from the Gas Board, have them converted, painted and gold-leafed, a scheme which had already graced Peter Lane, The Three Cranes Passage, Scott's Passage and Straker's Passage.
- I'm not expecting to be particularly impressed by a religious icon, but my jaw drops at the size and imposing beauty of this colossal gold-leafed statue.