moulder
UK /ˈməʊldə/ · US /ˈmoʊldəɹ/ verb, noun, proper noun
Forms moulders mouldering mouldered molder
- verb (chiefly Northern England, Scotland) Often followed by away or down: to cause (something) to decay or rot, or to crumble to pieces.
- verb (figurative, obsolete) To cause (someone or something) to die away or disappear.
- verb Often followed by away: to decay or rot, or to crumble to pieces.
- verb To die away, to disappear.
- verb (obsolete) Often followed by away: of a group of people (especially an army): to diminish in number; to dwindle.
- noun (archaic) A person who moulds dough into loaves for baking into bread.
- noun A person who moulds or shapes material into objects, especially clay into bricks, pottery, etc.
- noun An instrument or machine used to mould or shape material into objects.
- noun (figurative) A person or thing that influences or shapes; an influencer, a shaper.
- noun (metalworking) A person who makes moulds for casting metal; a mouldmaker.
- noun (uncountable, obsolete) Synonym of mould (“loose, friable soil”); also, dust.
- noun (obsolete, rare) Synonym of mould (“a natural substance in the form of a furry or woolly growth of tiny fungi that appears when organic material lies for a long time exposed to (usually warm and moist) air”)
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
Etymology
From mould (“loose friable soil; rotting earth regarded as the substance of the human body”) + -er (suffix forming frequentative verbs), probably influenced by mould (“furry growth of fungi”). Mould is derived from Middle English mold, molde (“loose friable soil, dirt, earth; earth as the substance out of which God made man, and to which the human body decays into after death”), from Old English molde (“earth, soil”), from Proto-Germanic *muldō (“dirt, soil; furry growth of fungi, mould”), from Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to crush, grind”).
* From Middle English molder, moldere (“maker of bread, baker”), from molden (“to knead or shape (bread); to make bread, bake; to mix (something) by kneading; to shape, mould; to pulverize (?)”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns, especially names of people engaged in professions or trades). Molden is derived from mold, molde (“model or pattern according to which a thing is made, mould”) + -en (suffix forming the infinitives of verbs); and mold, molde are borrowed from Old French molde, a variant of modle, molle (modern French moule), from Latin modulus (“small interval or measure; etc.”), diminutive of modus (“measure; manner, method”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *med- (“to measure”).
* From mould (“to shape in or on a mould; to form into a particular shape”, verb) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).
Probably a variant of mould (“loose, friable soil”), influenced by moulder (“to decay or rot, or to crumble to pieces, etc.”) (etymology 1).
Probably a variant of mould (“furry or woolly growth of tiny fungi”), influenced by moulder (“to decay or rot, or to crumble to pieces, etc.”) (etymology 1).
Webster’s 1913
- noun One who, or that which, molds or forms into shape; specifically (Founding), one skilled in the art of making molds for castings.
- verb To crumble into small particles; to turn to dust by natural decay; to lose form, or waste away, by a gradual separation of the component particles, without the presence of water; to crumble away.
- verb To turn to dust; to cause to crumble; to cause to waste away.
- See Mold, Molder, Moldy, etc.
Etymology [From Mold fine soft earth: cf. Prov. G. multern.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “moulder”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details