• (British) IPA: /ˈməʊldə/

moulder (moulders, present participle mouldering; past and past participle mouldered)

1. (intransitive, transitive) To decay or rot.

   • [Time's] gradual touch / Has mouldered into beauty many a tower.

   • 1817 December, [Jane Austen], Biographical Notice of the Author; published in Northanger Abbey: And Persuasion. [...] With a Biographical Notice of the Author. In Four Volumes, volume I, London: John Murray, […], 1818, OCLC 318384910 ↗, page v ↗:

     And when the public, which has not been insensible to the merits of "Sense and Sensibility," "Pride and Prejudice," "Mansfield Park," and "Emma," shall be informed that the hand which guided that pen is now mouldering in the grave, perhaps a brief account of Jane Austen will be read with a kindlier sentiment than simple curiosity.

   • 1841, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "The Rainy Day", Ballads and Other Poems

     The day is cold, and dark, and dreary

     It rains, and the wind is never weary;

     The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,

     But at every gust the dead leaves fall,

     And the day is dark and dreary.

   • circa 1855 John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, but his soul goes marching on! — Traditional, John Brown's Body

moulder (plural moulders)

1. A person who moulds dough into loaves.
2. Anyone who moulds or shapes things.
3. A machine used for moulding.

1. Surname