moldy

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   covered with, affected by, or smelling of mold

   They threw away the moldy cheese at the back of the refrigerator.

2. 2
   adj

   informal or old-fashioned: stale, outdated, or uninteresting

   The editor rejected the moldy old argument and asked for fresh evidence.

Formed from mold + -y. Mold in the fungal sense descends through Middle English forms related to Old Norse mygla, 'to grow moldy.' The figurative sense extends the idea of stale or decaying matter to ideas and styles.

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