mouldy

comparative mouldier · comparative more mouldy · superlative mouldiest · superlative most mouldy · alternative US moldy

1. Covered with mould.

   Synonyms: mouldering, mucid, rotten

2. figurativelyShowing signs of neglect; disused.

   Synonyms: disused, hoary, neglected, anachronistic, antediluvial, antediluvian, antiquated, antique

3. UKcolloquialWorthless; lousy; rotten.

   'Go cuddle up to your mouldy old papers,' she shouted at him. 'See how warm they'll keep you.' She slammed the door and made to walk off.

   2014, Patricia Combs, Café Paradise

   Synonyms: draffy, junky, two-bit, bastardly, blown, cacky, chaffy, cocking

4. derogatoryobsoleteslangGray-headed, whether from age or hair powder.

   Let him be great, as e'er he will, / He's rotten at the heart's core still; / Yet counsel from his mouldy pate, / Supports the trembling chair of state, / And scatters with unsparing hand, / A thousand miseries o'er the land; […]

   1820, Satirical and Political Pamphlets, page 27

   Synonyms: grizzly, hoary, silver-haired, gray / grey, gray-headed / grey-headed, grey-haired / gray-haired, grisly, grizzled

plural mouldies · alternative US moldy

1. UKdatedslanggovernmentA torpedo.

   1 more example

   I knew something of gunnery once, but now I'm on the shelf. I myself would risk the mouldies and fight at close quarters—we have the legs of Fritz and could choose our own range—but in-fighting means tremendous risks, and the dear stupid old public would howl for my head if the corresponding losses followed.

   2021, Bennet Copplestone, The Silent Watchers: England's Navy during the Great War