Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To decay or rot.
  • noun A person who moulds dough into loaves.
  • noun Anyone who moulds or shapes things.
  • noun A machine used for moulding.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb break down

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From mould + -er.

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Examples

  • Continue to cultivate the mind, to sharpen by exercise the genius, to attempt to delight or to instruct your race; and even supposing you fall short of every model you set before you -- supposing your name moulder with your dust, still yon will have passed life more nobly than the unlaborious herd.

    Ernest Maltravers — Volume 05 Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • Continue to cultivate the mind, to sharpen by exercise the genius, to attempt to delight or to instruct your race; and even supposing you fall short of every model you set before you -- supposing your name moulder with your dust, still you will have passed life more nobly than the unlaborious herd.

    Ernest Maltravers — Complete Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton 1838

  • Her husband -- ten years deceased -- had been a 'moulder'; he earned on an average between three and four pounds a week, and was so prudently disposed that, for the last decade of his life, he made it a rule never to spend a farthing of his wages.

    The Nether World George Gissing 1880

  • "one of those muddle-headed, stupid yokels with little or no mind," who, according to the townsman, "moulder" in country villages "till they become demented."

    The Adventure of Living : a Subjective Autobiography John St. Loe Strachey 1893

  • "They are now beautifully lit, with wine wonderfully displayed and not left to moulder."

    The Evolution of the Wine Cellar Jemima Sissons 2010

  • I was surprised when I started reading A Dash of Style, because often – too often – I buy books that sound good, then leave them to moulder on my shelf when I realize the content is beyond boring.

    Writer Unboxed » Blog Archive » Interview: Noah Lukeman on “A Dash of Style” 2009

  • The point of the poem is that death awaits all, regardless of station: "And the young and the old, and the low and the high / Shall moulder to dust, and together shall lie."

    With Death on His Mind John J. Miller 2012

  • He will now probably moulder away a few remaining wretched years in prison.

    Robert Morris Charles Rappleye 2010

  • He will now probably moulder away a few remaining wretched years in prison.

    Robert Morris Charles Rappleye 2010

  • Flickr user Sweet Juniper has a heartbreaking, gorgeous and horrifying set of photos of a rotting Detroit school book depository, where mountains of yellowing, damp, torn schoolbooks moulder, right in the middle of town:

    Boing Boing 2008

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