Definition of "mildew"

mildew

/ˈmɪl.djuː/

noun
uncountable
1. (phytopathology) A growth of minute powdery or webby fungi, whitish or of different colors, found on various diseased or decaying substances.
verb
third-person singular simple present mildews, present participle mildewing, simple past and past participle mildewed
1. (transitive) To taint with mildew.
  Quotations
  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.
  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, [Act III, scene iv], page 298, column 1
2. (intransitive) To become tainted with mildew.
  Quotations
  His bald purplish head now looked for all the world like a mildewed skull.
  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, page 24