moldy
Americanadjective
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moldier,
comparative
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moldiest
superlative
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overgrown or covered with mold.
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musty, as from decay or age.
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Informal. old-fashioned; outmoded.
moldy ideas about higher education.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of moldy
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at mold 2, -y 1
Explanation
Things that have gotten damp and started to smell musty can be described as moldy. You can also use this word for things that are actually growing a fungus on them, like your bag of moldy bread. Mold is a particular type of fungus, often greenish or gray in color. Things become moldy from being stored in dark, damp places or in the case of some food, from not being refrigerated. If you wait months to clean out your locker and throw away your old lunch bags, you might find mold growing on bread crusts, yogurt, or containers of leftover ravioli. Ditch those moldy remnants!
Vocabulary lists containing moldy
Shiloh
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"Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
To be clear: These athletes aren’t chowing on the yucky old sports gels we all know and hate, the ones that taste like tangerines and moldy baseball gloves.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
Cigarette butts litter the floor, moldy food is left to decay on greasy dishes and the ceiling is stained with candle soot.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
“And it’s especially hydrating — probably 2-3 bananas per can, which you can bring anywhere and you don’t have to worry about moldy bananas. And just 50 calories — Naked’s coconut water has 60.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2025
For Christmas dinner, they toasted moldy bread, and Gibbons surprised everyone with a single can of Spam that they split among everyone.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2025
Inside were moldy packing peanuts stuffed around several jars of Lady ’Stache Off.
From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray
The derring-do is so entertaining, the moldier gags and soppy ending are forgivable.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 8, 2013
The straw they had given him seemed even moldier than the pile on which Meggie had slept, but the boy looked as if he hadn’t closed his eyes since Flatnose had locked him in anyway.
From "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke
I’ve heard him say, to one of the hovering women who was making feeble attempts to corral some of the moldier clutter.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
In fact everything looked, as Erica expressed it, "moldier!"
From We Two, a novel by Edna Lyall
The scripts overhaul the moldiest genre tropes -- interstellar invasions, time travel loops, dimension-hopping inventions -- and infuse them with such warmth and silliness that they seem fresh again.
From Salon ● Jun. 23, 2011
Puffing Bird Sir: Avant garde bopper Parker, as any but the moldiest fig knows, earned his frenetic niche in bopdom by his puffing on the alto sax.
From Time Magazine Archive
Otto himself, a pleasant youth in a scarlet & white Hungarian noble's costume, sat at the head of a table that contained members of the proudest, moldiest families in Europe.
From Time Magazine Archive
The simplest, tiredest, moldiest old racket that ever made a quick nickel.
From Letter of the Law by Alan Edward Nourse
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
