molder

[mohl-der]

verb (used without object)

to turn to dust by natural decay; crumble; disintegrate; waste away: a house that had been left to molder.

verb (used with object)

to cause to molder.

Also especially British, mould·er.

Origin of molder

1525–35; obsolete mold to crumble (v. use of mold³) + -er⁶

Related formsun·mold·ered; especially British, un·mould·ered, adjectiveun·mold·er·ing; especially British, un·mould·er·ing, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for mouldering

Contemporary Examples of mouldering

Someone might pull your mouldering hardback from the bottom of the stack and point a neon sign at it.
Famous for Not Being Famous: Enough About ‘Stoner’
Drew Smith
October 31, 2013
What sort of mouldering growth in a person's brain would make him press send on something like that?
Bryan Fischer, All Class
Michael Tomasky
December 14, 2012

Historical Examples of mouldering

Grannie's bed, with its white curtains, looked as if it were mouldering away after her.
Wilfrid Cumbermede
George MacDonald
But by that time he probably would be mouldering in the rocky dust of the asteroid.
Acid Bath
Vaseleos Garson
It does not wear its antiquity as an excuse for sinking into mouldering uselessness.
Patchwork
Anna Balmer Myers
Our own cathedrals are mouldering by unregarded dilapidation.
A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland
Samuel Johnson
At length they reached the blackened ruins and the mouldering dead of Tangibao.
The Adventures of the Chevalier De La Salle and His Companions, in Their Explorations of the Prairies, Forests, Lakes, and Rivers, of the New World, and Their Interviews with the Savage Tribes, Two Hundred Years Ago
John S. C. Abbott

British Dictionary definitions for mouldering

molder

verb, noun

the US spelling of moulder 1

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for mouldering

molder

also moulder, "to crumble away," 1530s, probably frequentative of mold (n.3) "loose earth." Related: Moldered; moldering.

molder

also moulder, mid-15c., "one who molds or forms," agent noun from mold (v.). From late 13c. as a surname.