Definition of "golden calf" []

• A golden image of a sacrificial calf fashioned by Aaron and worshiped by the Israelites. (noun)
• Money as an object of worship; mammon. (noun)
• The subject of intense veneration: "Arms control . . . has evolved [into] the golden calf of liberalism” ( Patrick J. Buchanan). (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "A companion of this Marshal's told the people that “the Scripture was their golden calf and they danced round it.”"