English

Cast and mold

Alternative forms

• mould (Commonwealth spelling)

Noun

mold ‎(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

   • Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

     Crowned with an architrave of antique mould.

   • 1915, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price, chapterI:

     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

Translations

Verb

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.
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.

Translations

Etymology 2

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.

Noun

mold ‎(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.

Derived terms

• moldy, mouldy

See also

• mildew

Translations

Verb

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.

Etymology 3

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

mold ‎(plural molds)

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

Derived terms

• leaf mold

Translations

Verb

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

1. To cover with mold or soil.

Faroese

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [mɔlt]

Noun

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)

Declension

Icelandic

Etymology

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

Noun

mold f ‎(genitive singular moldar, nominative plural moldir)

1. dirt, mould, humus, ground, earth

Declension

Old Norse

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

Noun

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.

Declension

Descendants

References

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