turn to lead

[jiang]

Dear teachers,

Please read the following sentence:
Even the gold standard of forecasting turned into lead.
Does "turn to lead" mean a useless thing?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Jiang

 

[jutfrank]

My use of turned to lead would be to say that something has become very heavy, like lead. After, say, a vigorous run:

"It feels like my legs have turned to lead."

Without more context I'm not sure what the writer means in your example, though. It sounds like some kind of mixed up alchemy metaphor, in which case lead probably signifies valuelessness or uselessness, yes.

 

[tedmc]

I think lead is more likely to be associated with something heavy and unwieldy.

 

[SoothingDave]

Alchemists in the pages of history were always trying to turn base metals, like lead, into gold.

This would be the opposite, turning something valuable into something much less valuable.