mouldy
/ˈməʊldi
/(US moldy)
adjective (mouldier, mouldiest; US moldier, moldiest)
1Covered with a fungal growth which causes decay, due to age or damp conditions: mouldy bread...
- Indeed, the only food he could find, and which starvation caused him to digest, was mouldy crusts of bread covered in mouse droppings.
- Jean-Baptiste Canelle, for that was his name, sat behind a table covered with moldy bread crusts, half burned candles, and beer-stains.
- How can the council say that this family are not a priority when they are living in mouldy, musty, damp conditions with a two-week old baby and a son who has asthma?
Synonyms
mildewed, mildewy, musty, mouldering, fusty;
blighted, smutty;
decaying, decayed, rotting, rotten, bad, spoiled, spoilt, decomposing, decomposed, rancid, rank, putrid, putrescent, putrefying
rare mucid
2 informal Tediously old-fashioned: mouldy conventions...
- Forget the moldy old slide-show party.
- They feel entitled to de-clutter their lives from those mouldy old ancestral obligations.
- He loved it until he played a chess game with moldy old Uncle Hooya… and lost.
2.1chiefly British Dull or depressing: evenings filled with mouldy old shows...
- The only sign of life there today came from a mouldy old caravan, all steamy windows and grimed with neglect, where a radio was playing Sunday morning music of the popular kind.
- Now this is more fun than mouldy old CDs - we had more snow this morning, from around 7: 30 am onwards.
- Not another mouldy old book to add to your ever growing collection!
Derivatives
mouldiness
/ noun ...- The mixture of fresh green, and slightly dusty mouldiness
- The starter of oysters with potatoes and Dunsyre blue was really three starters in one (alas, the salty freshness of oysters doesn't complement the mouldiness of blue cheese); the confit duck leg came in a dense, treacly reduction.
- A hard Norwegian cheese of exceptional mouldiness and sharp flavour.