leaf mold
1
4.9
- noun
- /liːf moʊld/
- Specialized
:
humus de hojas
- Charlotte was scared of insects, and when the weather turned cool, the large roaches that bred outside in the leaf mold would come into the house in search of food at night.
- leaf mold and compost
- leaf mold and peat
- leaf mold and manure
Examples
-
"Elinor rose and kissed her aunt, who smelled of rosemary and leaf mold."
Fiction book (1999) -
Start by building your soil with compost or leaf mold to improve drainage and moisture retention before planting.
-
Of course, this meant that his feet kept losing purchase as leaves slipped under them, and he fell several times until he was covered with leaf mold and dirt, with bits of old leaves in his hair.
Fiction book (2000) -
They were damp and speckled with bits of grass and leaf mold.
Fiction book (1991) -
Here, most of the life was small, and it lived in a strange, vertical world, with much of the life swarming in the rich leaf mold of the floor, and many larger animals, although still small by plains standards, living on the ground, browsing among the lower plant growth.
Fiction book (1990) -
This here is your leaf mold, Griswold said aloud, bending over and showing Rachael Ann some dirt.
Fiction book (2001) -
So the mycorrhiza fungi will colonize the leaf mold or the the leaf mulch and create leaf mold.
-
The gardeners paid careful attention to watering during the growing season and added extra leaf mold as needed.
-
Most herbs like ample organic matter, so incorporate leaf mold or peat moss into the soil.
Synonyms
4
4.4
Dark soft soil that is rich in rotting plant matter for growing plants
Earth made from dead leaves that break down and help plants grow
How Decomposed
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'soil consisting of decomposed leaves' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'leaf' (decomposed leaves) with 'mold' (a soil or humus-rich layer); the compound describes mold made from leaves. This noun–noun compounding is a productive, cross-linguistically common descriptive pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Leaf mold comes from the simple image of fallen leaves rotting into dark, crumbly mold. Gardeners collect these leaves and let them break down into a rich material they add to their beds, so the name means 'soil made from old leaves'.