Lode
Lode (lōd) , noun
[Anglo-Saxon lād way, journey, from līean to go. See Lead to guide, and compare Load a burden.]
1.
A water course or way; a reach of water.
Down that long, dark lode... he and his brother skated home in triumph.
2.
(Mining) A body of ore visibly separated from adjacent rock.
3.
(Mining) Any regular vein or course of valuable mineral, whether metallic or not.
4.
A concentrated supply or source of something valuable.
Collocations (1)
mother lode , a large concentrated source of mineral or other valuable thing, from which lesser sources have been derived; -- often used figuratively. The term may have been originally applied to real or imagined large deposits of gold from which smaller granules were washed downstream, there constituting a diluted source of gold, and hinting at the richer source from which they were derived; as, to hit the mother lode.