Sterling

1. a. Genuine; pure; of excellent quality; conforming to the highest standard; of full value; as, a work of sterling merit; a man of sterling good sense.
2. n. Same as Starling, 3.
3. n. Any English coin of standard value; coined money.
4. n. A certain standard of quality or value for money.
5. a. Belonging to, or relating to, the standard British money of account, or the British coinage; as, a pound sterling; a shilling sterling; a penny sterling; — now chiefly applied to the lawful money of England; but sterling cost, sterling value, are used.

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.