▪ I. mouldy, a.1
(ˈməʊldɪ)
[f. mould n.1 + -y.]
Of the nature of mould or fine soil.
| 1615 W. Lawson Country Housew. Gard. (1626) 20 That the earth be mouldy..that it may run among the small tangles without straining or bruising. 1825 Loudon Encycl. Agric. §2070. 312 Species [of soils]. Loamy, Peaty, Mouldy. |
▪ II. mouldy, a.2
(ˈməʊldɪ)
[f. mould n.4 + -y.]
1. a. Overgrown or covered with mould; hence, decaying or decayed, mouldering or mouldered.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xix. xciii. (1495) 916 In an hote place and mouldy. 1570 Levins Manip. 97/15 Mouldie, mucidus. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 158 Hee liues vpon mouldie stew'd Pruines. 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. iii. Ad Sect. xv. 104 Searching his scrip in expectation to have found in it mouldy bread. 1681 Dryden Abs. & Achit. i. 302 A successive title long and dark, Drawn from the mouldy rolls of Noah's ark. 1784 Cowper Task v. 418 To read engraven on the mouldy walls..his predecessor's tale. 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 338 Books will not become mouldy in the neighbourhood of Russia leather. 1848 Dickens Dombey iv, His nephew standing on the mouldy staircase. 1888 F. Hume Mme. Midas i. Prol., A bag of mouldy biscuits. |
b. Of, consisting of, or resembling mould. rare.
| 1579 Spenser Sheph. Cal. Feb. 135 The mouldie mosse, which thee accloieth. a 1719 Addison Milton's Style Imit. 68 The walls On all sides furr'd with mouldy damps. 1878 tr. von Ziemssen's Cycl. Med. XVII. 942 The formation of mouldy fungi. 1891 Century Mag. Nov. 60 The moldy blue bloom of the hemlock. |
2. a. transf. and fig. (See also mouldy-chaps.)
| 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 399 Very many obseruations out of rustie and mouldie antiquaries. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 139 Away you mouldie Rogue, away. 1605 B. Jonson Volpone ii. ii, With their mouldy tales out of Boccacio. 1673 [R. Leigh] Transp. Reh. 43 Turning over the moth-eaten criticks, or the mouldy councils. 1780 Cowper Lett. 6 Aug., Wks. (1876) 55 It is to be hoped that the present century has nothing to do with the mouldy opinions of the last. 1889 Spectator 2 Nov., The ancient joke about smelling the paper-knife is one of the mouldiest of witticisms. |
b. Wretched, boring, depressing, gloomy, sick. colloq. or slang.
| 1876 Stevenson Lett. (1903) I. iii. 117, I have had to fight against pretty mouldy health. 1896 Farmer & Henley Slang IV. 362/1 Mouldy,..worthless: e.g., a mouldy offer. 1912 F. M. Hueffer Parnel i. iii. 93, I slogged like that for Nancy... We could have got along on a major's pay, out there. Just got along! And then the blasted girl goes and gets rotten titles and mouldy houses to her back on the day the bottom drops out of me. 1916 E. V. Lucas Vermilion Box 220, I should be mouldy company for you, I fear, because I can't talk. 1916 ‘Taffrail’ Pincher Martin x. 174 Since you're all so mouldy, I suppose I must..turn in. 1924 M. Kennedy Constant Nymph iv. xxiii. 322 She looked more wan and frail than ever and he exclaimed: ‘You look very mouldy.’ 1936 ― Together & Apart i. 95 Do please come home soon, for it's mouldy without you. 1956 A. Huxley Let. 25 Dec. (1969) 814 One feels a bit low and mouldy after those bouts of flu. 1962 Guardian 20 Jan. 3/6 Local support for the event had deteriorated, but it did not deserve to be called ‘mouldy’. 1972 Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 9 Sept. 92/1 The average cabby is a moldy old fascist. |
c. mouldy fig: a supporter (occas., a performer) of traditional jazz. Also attrib. or as quasi-adj.
| 1945 Esquire Mar. 10/2 Why do aforementioned connoisseurs insist upon maintaining that the Chicago and New York (white) styles are the real Jazz, when it's perfectly obvious that New Orleans was—and is—the birthplace of the true ‘stuff’?.. Sincerely, Moldy Fig, France. 1945 S. Platt in Ibid. June 10/3, I wish to protest against the ‘Moldy Fig’ genre of music lovers. There seems to be some perverse streak in critics such as Avakian or ‘Moldy Fig’ which prevents them from liking anything but the very oldest available. 1958 G. Lea Somewhere there's Music x. 83 Dixie Cats and the rest of the Moldy Figs, okay for them, they don't need to think. 1959 Hi Fi Rev. Apr. 79/2 Lines of seething fury were drawn between the [jazz] traditionalists and the boppers who viewed each other as ‘moldy figs’, on the one hand, and players of ‘all them wrong notes’, on the other. 1968 Listener 4 Apr. 450/3 Readers over 30 will remember the term ‘Mouldy Figge’ as contemporaneous with Little Jackie Dennis and Suez. 1968 Blues Unlimited Nov. 7 Many collectors are mouldy-fig enough to believe that virtually every worthwhile blues singer was recorded at least once in the '20s and '30s. 1973 National Observer (U.S.) 6 Oct. 23/1 Charles Keil satirizes the ‘moldy-fig’ aspirations of earlier blues scholars. |
3. Comb., as mouldy-minded adj.
| 1906 Hardy Dynasts II. vi. vii. 320 The rawest Dynast..Will..Down-topple to the dust like soldier Saul, And Europe's mouldy-minded oligarchs Be propped anew. |
▪ III. † mouldy, a.3 Obs.
[f. muled + -y.]
= muled a.1
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens v. lxxviii. 646 The inner part of Squilla..is applyed with great profite to..kibed or moldyeheeles. |
▪ IV. mouldy, a.4
(ˈməʊldɪ)
[f. mould n.3 + -y.]
Of sheep: Well-shaped. (Cf. mould n.3 10.)
| 1863 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XXIV. ii. 475 Mr. F.'s first pen [of ewes] were very ‘mouldy’, but hardly big enough. |
▪ V. mouldy, n. Naval and R.A.F. slang.
(ˈməʊldɪ)
[Origin unknown.]
1. A torpedo.
| 1916 M. T. Hainsselin In Northern Mists xvi. 62 A German submarine..kept one of the bug-traps bailed up..for a week by waiting..ready to squirt a mouldy at her directly she showed her nose outside... To fire a torpedo at her, of course! 1918 Yachting Monthly XXIV. 297/1 When H.M.S. Carraco was torpedoed she received the mouldy right forward. 1928 Observer 11 Mar. 17/4 The King of Afghanistan will be given a lesson in torpedo firing and himself discharge a ‘mouldy’ from one of L22's tubes. 1932 Flight 19 Aug. 777/1 At the same time, no doubt, the A.A. gunners on board are gleefully telling all and sundry how they simply riddled the ‘Horsleys’ with shells before ever a mouldy was dropped. 1943 C. H. Ward-Jackson Piece of Cake 43 Mouldy, a torpedo..was brought into air force use by the Royal Naval Air Service. |
2. A confection sold at naval colleges.
| 1916 G. Franklin Naval Digression xii. 105 The various cadets engaged in stuffing themselves with ‘pinkmen’, ‘mouldies’..and suchlike vinos y comida. 1962 Granville Dict. Sailors' Slang 78/2 Mouldy,..confection popular at Dartmouth. |