mold

See also: mōld, Mold, and Mold.

English

Cast and mold

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • enPR: mŏld, mōld
  • (UK) IPA(key): /məʊld/, /mɔʊld/
  • (US) IPA(key): /moʊld/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -əʊld

Etymology 1

Via Middle English and Old French, from Latin modulus. Doublet of module.

Noun

mold (countable and uncountable, plural molds)

  1. A hollow form or matrix for shaping a fluid or plastic substance.
  2. A frame or model around or on which something is formed or shaped.
  3. Something that is made in or shaped on a mold.
  4. The shape or pattern of a mold.
  5. General shape or form.
    the oval mold of her face
    • 1871, Alexander Pope (1688-1744), The Works of Alexander Pope: New Ed. Including Several Hundred Unpublished Letters, and Other New Materials, Collected in Part by John Wilson Croker. With Introd. and Notes by Whitwell Elwin, Volume 1, J.Murray, p.206
      Crowned with an architrave of antique mould.
    • 1915, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price, chapterI:
      This new-comer was a man who in any company would have seemed striking. […] Indeed, all his features were in large mold, like the man himself, as though he had come from a day when skin garments made the proper garb of men.
  6. Distinctive character or type.
    a leader in the mold of her predecessors
  7. A fixed or restrictive pattern or form.
    His method of scientific investigation broke the mold and led to a new discovery.
  8. (architecture) A group of moldings.
    the arch mold of a porch or doorway;  the pier mold of a Gothic pier, meaning the whole profile, section, or combination of parts
  9. (anatomy) A fontanelle.
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Verb

mold (third-person singular simple present molds, present participle molding, simple past and past participle molded)

  1. (transitive) To shape in or on a mold.
  2. (transitive) To form into a particular shape; to give shape to.
    • Job 10:8-9, Old Testament, New International Version:
      Your hands shaped me and made me....Remember that you molded me like clay.
  3. (transitive) To guide or determine the growth or development of; influence
    • 1963. Haile Selassie (translated)
      It is you who must mold the minds of your students that they may be wise, farsighted, intelligent, profound in their thinking, devoted to their country and government and fruitful in their work. It is you who must sense as the example.
  4. (transitive) To fit closely by following the contours of.
  5. (transitive) To make a mold of or from (molten metal, for example) before casting.
  6. (transitive) To ornament with moldings.
  7. (intransitive) To be shaped in or as if in a mold.
    These shoes gradually molded to my feet.
Translations

Etymology 2

Penicillium mold on mandarin oranges

From Middle English mowlde, noun use and alteration of mowled, past participle of moulen, mawlen (“to grow moldy”), from Old Norse mygla (compare dialectal Danish mugle), from Proto-Germanic *muglōną, diminutive and denominative of *mukiz 'soft substance' (compare Old Norse myki, mykr (“cow dung”)), from Proto-Indo-European *meuk- 'slick, soft'. More at muck and meek.

Noun

mold (countable and uncountable, plural molds)

  1. A natural substance in the form of a woolly or furry growth of tiny fungi that appears when organic material lies for a long time exposed to (usually warm and moist) air.
Derived terms
Translations
See also

Verb

mold (third-person singular simple present molds, present participle molding, simple past and past participle molded)

  1. (transitive) To cause to become moldy; to cause mold to grow upon.
  2. (intransitive) To become moldy; to be covered or filled, in whole or in part, with a mold.

Etymology 3

From Old English molde, from Proto-Germanic *muldō ‘dirt, soil’ (compare Old Frisian molde, Middle Dutch moude, Dutch moude, obsolete German Molte, Norwegian mold), from Proto-Indo-European *ml̥-tā (compare Old Irish moll ‘bran’, Lithuanian mìltai ‘flour’), from *mel- (compare English meal). More at meal.

Noun

mold (plural molds)

  1. Loose friable soil, rich in humus and fit for planting.
  2. (Britain, dialectal, chiefly plural) Earth, ground.
Alternative forms
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

mold (third-person singular simple present molds, present participle molding, simple past and past participle molded)

  1. To cover with mold or soil.

Anagrams

Faroese

Etymology

From Old Norse mold, from Proto-Germanic *muldō ‘dirt, soil’, from Proto-Indo-European *ml̥-tā, from *mel-.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [mɔlt]

Noun

mold f (genitive singular moldar, uncountable)

  1. (agriculture) earth, humus soil, humus layer

Declension

Declension of mold (singular only)
f2s singular
indefinite definite
nominative mold moldin
accusative mold moldina
dative mold moldini
genitive moldar moldarinnar

Icelandic

Etymology

From Old Norse mold, from Proto-Germanic *muldō (“dirt, soil”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /mɔlt/
  • Rhymes: -ɔlt

Noun

mold f (genitive singular moldar, nominative plural moldir)

  1. dirt, mould, humus, ground, earth

Declension

Old Norse

FWOTD – 31 October 2013

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *muldō (“dirt, soil”). Cognate with Old English molde (English mold), Old High German molta, Gothic 𐌼𐌿𐌻𐌳𐌰 (mulda).

Pronunciation

  • (12th century Icelandic) IPA(key): /mold/

Noun

mold f (genitive moldar, plural moldir)

  1. earth, dirt, soil
    • Vǫluspá, stanza 3, lines 7–8:
      mjǫtvið mœran
      fyr mold neðan.
      the great tree
      beneath the ground.

Declension

Descendants

References

  • mold in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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