mildew
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English myldew, from Old English meledēaw, mildēaw, from Proto-West Germanic *milidauw, from *mili (“honey”) + *dauw (“dew”). Compare West Frisian moaldau, Dutch meeldauw, German Mehltau. More at dew.
Pronunciation edit
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈmɪl.djuː/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - (US) IPA(key): /ˈmɪl.d(j)u/
- Rhymes: -ɪldjuː, -ɪldu
Noun edit
mildew (uncountable)
- (phytopathology) A growth of minute powdery or webby fungi, whitish or of different colors, found on various diseased or decaying substances.
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
Translations edit
growth of minute fungi
|
Verb edit
mildew (third-person singular simple present mildews, present participle mildewing, simple past and past participle mildewed)
- (transitive) To taint with mildew.
- c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], page 298, column 1:
- Hee giues the Web and the Pin, ſquints the eye, and makes the Hare‐lippe; Mildewes the white Wheate, and hurts the poore Creature of earth.
- (intransitive) To become tainted with mildew.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Spouter-Inn”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 24:
- His bald purplish head now looked for all the world like a mildewed skull.
Translations edit
to taint with mildew
|
to become tainted with mildew
|
See also edit
Middle English edit
Noun edit
mildew
- Alternative form of myldew