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golden rule. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Pronunciation
Noun
golden rule (plural golden rules)
- (idiomatic) A fundamental rule or principle.
1943 March and April, T. F. Cameron, “The Preparation of Timetables”, in Railway Magazine, page 75:There is one golden rule of timetable work, that if a passenger train never runs to time it must be altered or other trains must be altered so that it can shake off its chronic unpunctuality.
2023 August 17, Aditya Chakrabortty, “Can’t pay and they really do take it away: what happens when the bailiffs come knocking”, in The Guardian:A new book called When Nothing Works shows which groups have enjoyed the biggest rise in take-home pay since the turn of the millennium. From Tony Blair to Boris Johnson, the authors discover one golden rule: the richer you are, the more money you’re given.
- (ethics) The principle that one should treat other people in the manner in which one would want to be treated by them.
1818, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 2, in Rob Roy:"Mr. Francis seems to understand the fundamental principle of all moral accounting, the great ethic rule of three. Let A do to B, as he would have B do to him; the product will give the rule of conduct required." My father smiled at this reduction of the golden rule to arithmetical form.
- (law, England and Wales, idiomatic) A method of statutory interpretation, whereby a judge will deviate from a literal interpretation of the law to the extent necessary to circumvent obvious absurdities or (sometimes) conclusions repugnant to public policy.
- Coordinate terms: plain meaning rule, mischief rule
Translations
fundamental rule or principle
principle that one should treat other people how one wants to be treated
Translations to be checked
See also