Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MOLD, n.² [Sp. molde, a mold or matrix; moldar, amoldar, to cast; Port. molde, moldar, id.; Fr. moule; Arm. moul; Dan. mul, muld; W. mold, whence moldiaw, to mold, work or knead. This may be radically the same word as mold, fine earth; a name taken from the material of molds. The connection of matrix with mater and materia, fortifies this conjecture.]

1. The matrix in which any thing is cast and receives its form. Molds are of various kinds. Molds for casting cannon and various vessels, are composed of some species of earth, particularly clay. Molds for other purposes consist of a cavity in some species of metal, cut or formed to the shape designed, or are otherwise formed, each for its particular use.
2. Cast; form; as, a writer of vulgar mold. Crown'd with an architrave of antique mold. Pope.
3. The suture or contexture of the skull. Ainsworth.
4. In ship-building, a thin flexible piece of timber, used as a pattern by which to form the curves of the timbers and compassing pieces. Encyc.
5. Among gold-beaters, a number of pieces of vellum or a like substance, laid over one another, between which the leaves of gold and silver are laid for beating. Encyc.