MOULDY (mouldier, mouldiest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: mouldier    , mouldiest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does mouldy mean? 

• MOULDY (adjective)
  The adjective MOULDY has 1 sense:

1. covered with or smelling of mold

  Familiarity information: MOULDY used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MOULDY (adjective)

Comparative: mouldier   
Superlative: mouldiest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Covered with or smelling of mold

Synonyms:

moldy; mouldy; musty

Context example:

a moldy (or musty) odor

Similar:

stale (lacking freshness, palatability, or showing deterioration from age)

Derivation:

mould (a fungus that produces a superficial growth on various kinds of damp or decaying organic matter)

 Context examples 

We went to the Golden Cross at Charing Cross, then a mouldy sort of establishment in a close neighbourhood.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

And if you’ve money, my son, and know how to handle it and spread it, you can do anything! Now, you don’t think it likely that a man who could do anything is going to wear his breeches out sitting in the stinking hold of a rat-gutted, beetle-ridden, mouldy old coffin of a China coaster.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A dark store-room opens out of it, and that is a place to be run past at night; for I don't know what may be among those tubs and jars and old tea-chests, when there is nobody in there with a dimly-burning light, letting a mouldy air come out of the door, in which there is the smell of soap, pickles, pepper, candles, and coffee, all at one whiff.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)