Emily Dickinson Lexicon

MOLD-ER, v.i. [Dan. mulner; Sw. multna, to grow moldy.]

1. To turn to dust by natural decay; to crumble; to perish; to waste away by a gradual separation of the component particles, without the presence of water. In this manner, animal and vegetable substances molder, and so also do stones and shells. When statues molder, and when arches fall. Prior.
2. To be diminished; to waste away gradually. If he had sat still, the enemy's army would have moldered to nothing. Clarendon.