Mold

Pronunciation

• enPR: mŏld

Alternative forms

• mould Commonwealth spelling

Via Middle English and Old French, from Latin modulus

Full definition of mold

Noun

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
• Alexander Pope (1688-1744)Crowned with an architrave of antique mould.
• 1910, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price Chapter 1, 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

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

Verb

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; as, a teacher who helps to mold the minds of his students
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.

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

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

• moldy, mouldy

Verb

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 mold), from Proto-Indo-European *ml̥-tā (compare Old Irish moll ‘bran’, Lithuanian mìltai ‘flour’), from *mel- (compare English meal). More at meal.

Noun

1. Loose friable soil, rich in humus and fit for planting.

Derived terms

• leaf mold

Verb

1. To cover with mold or soil.----