mold

• mould (British spelling)

• enPR: mŏld, mōld
• (UK) IPA^(key): /məʊld/, /mɔʊld/
• (US) IPA^(key): /moʊld/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊld

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

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

   • 1711, Alexander Pope, "The Temple of Fame", in 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 Including Several Hundred Unpublished Letters, and Other New Materials, Collected in Part by John Wilson Croker.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.

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 0108:

     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.

• break the mold
• (archaeology): post mold
• (paleontology): fossil mold

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; to form into a particular shape; to give shape to.
   • 1910, Walter A. Wells, The hygienic, economic and sociologic aspect of the throat‎, volume 20, number 1, DOI:10.1288/00005537-191001000-00004, pages 47–48:

     Not only in formal discourse, but in the ordinary walks of life, a well-modulated, expressive voice is a most valuable asset, whether one’s object be to interest, persuade or convince, to give a command or entreat a favor. The moulding of the voice into finished articulate speech is a mechanism in which the entire oral cavity, including palate, teeth, tongue and lips, take an important part. As a result of either structural defect of these organs, or, as is more often the case, as a consequence of their imperfect innervation, various logopathies may occur, which profoundly affect the social status of the unfortunate individual and seriously embarrass his way to a successful career.
     Lisping, stuttering, stammering, lallation, nunnation and sigmatism, paragammacism and paralambdacism are but few of the locutory evils encountered, much too frequently in adolescents and adults. The fact that they are mostly amenable to treatment and may often be completely corrected, with proper attention and training, is something that needs to be more thoroughly impressed upon our educational bodies and sociologic reformers.

   • 1978, Job 10:8-9, Old Testament, New International Version:

     Your hands shaped me and made me … Remember that you molded me like clay.

2. (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.

3. (transitive) To fit closely by following the contours of.
4. (transitive) To make a mold of or from (molten metal, for example) before casting.
5. (transitive) To ornament with moldings.
6. (intransitive) To be shaped in or as if in a mold.

   These shoes gradually molded to my feet.

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.

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.

• moldy, mouldy

• mildew

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.

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

mold (plural molds)

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

• mool

• leaf mold

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

1. To cover with mold or soil.

• LMDO

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

• IPA^(key): [mɔlt]

mold f (genitive singular moldar, uncountable)

1. (agriculture) earth, humus soil, humus layer
   • tá myndaði Harrin Guð mannin av mold jarðar

     And the Lord God formed man of the soil of the ground (Genesis 2,7)

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

• IPA^(key): /mɔlt/
• Rhymes: -ɔlt

mold f (genitive singular moldar, nominative plural moldir)

1. dirt, mould, humus, ground, earth

From Old Norse mold, from Proto-Germanic *muldō.

mold f or m (definite singular molda or molden, uncountable)

1. humus, earth, soil, topsoil

• muld

• “mold” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “mold” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

From Old Norse mold, from Proto-Germanic *muldō.

mold f (definite singular molda, uncountable)

1. humus, earth, soil, topsoil

• “mold” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

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

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

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.

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