mildew
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Powdery mildew on pumpkin leaves
English
Etymology
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
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈmɪl.djuː/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - (US) IPA(key): /ˈmɪl.d(j)u/
- Rhymes: -ɪldjuː, -ɪldu
Noun
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
Descendants
Translations
growth of minute fungi
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Verb
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 Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , 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
to taint with mildew
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to become tainted with mildew
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See also
Middle English
Noun
mildew
- Alternative form of myldew