golden calf

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun In the Bible, a golden image of a calf fashioned by Aaron and worshiped by the Israelites while Moses was on Mount Sinai.
• noun Money as an object of worship; mammon.
• noun The subject of intense veneration.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A golden image of a calf, made by Aaron and worshipped by the Israelites.
• noun by extension Money as an end in itself; mammon.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun (Old Testament) an idol made by Aaron for the Israelites to worship; destroyed by Moses; it is now used to refer to anything worshipped undeservedly