buried treasure

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buried treasure (countable and uncountable, plural buried treasures)

1. Treasure stashed underground or underwater.

   The buried treasure from the shipwreck was found yesterday.

2. (idiomatic) Something valuable that is concealed for a long time and then rediscovered.

• 2005, Foss Farrar, “Hastings found buried treasure in students' work”, Arkansas City Traveler, May 24:

  Hastings draws on her own experience of overcoming writing blocks as a college student to support her belief that anyone can learn to write well. "The trick is to find buried treasure in our work," she said. Her own teachers in junior and senior high school, didn't critique her writing, said Hastings, who grew up on a farm near Pawnee, Okla. It wasn't until she wrote a paper in college, at the University of Oklahoma, that she started to understand how to write well.

• 2009, “E3 2009: The Five: Borderlands”, Crispygamer.com, June 9:

  The verdict on whether Borderlands is buried treasure or fool's gold will come down when it hits later this year.