mildewy
1
4.5
- adjective
- /ˈmɪlˌduːi/
- It was odd to ring my own bell, still stranger to wait for Rosie to call down and buzz me in, but as I breathed the damp, mildewy air of the stairwell, I felt my body relax.
- mildewy smell
Examples
-
The room also smelled of the vague mildewy scent of linen, ammonia, and cheap synthetic drapes.
Fiction book (2001) -
I recognize them as the sort of mildewy, drab woolen army surplus my mother used to send with me to camp.
Fiction book (1994) -
There's the mossy, mildewy, unpleasant smell of the dog run beyond the trees.
Fiction book (1997) -
Piles of trash were heaped along one of the long walls, and the dank, mildewy smell was overpowering.
Fiction book (1992) -
Now it was dark, and I was in the yard, stretched out on the striped, mildewy cushions of our old lawn swing, an unopened package of Oreos on my lap.
Fiction book (1998) -
By five, my usual dinner-break time, we are sitting side by side in a mildewy auditorium while, on the other side of a plate-glass window, girls wearing fishtails drink RC Colas underwater.
Fiction book (1994) -
I'd taken the bus downtown to Acres of Books and found myself, long hair in my eyes, frayed bell-bottoms, in the fiction section, breathing in the mildewy, comforting exhale of half-forgotten authors.
Academic text (2003) -
The musty, mildewy smell in the basement made it clear that there was dampness in the walls.
-
After weeks of rain, the mildewy odor in the old storage room became almost unbearable.
-
I could tell the towels were mildewy after being left damp in the laundry for too long.
Synonyms
108
5.3
Very bad or unpleasant
93
1.0
Giving off a strong, unpleasant stink
33
3.8
Very bad or of poor quality
32
2.1
Has soft green or black growth and often smells bad
25
3.9
A stale, slightly damp smell like old things kept without fresh air
19
6.2
An unpleasantly damp, cool place that smells musty
15
6.9
Has a bad smell
9
4.1
A very strong stink that makes you want to move away
2
3.8
Having a bad smell that people do not like
1
4.4
That has a strong, unpleasant odor
1
9.9
Having a strong bad smell that makes you move away
1
9.5
Having a stale, stuffy smell as if it has not been aired
1
9.9
Having a slimy or musty smell like old mold
Having a strong, unpleasant smell
Antonyms
How Musty
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Mildewy comes from mildew plus the ending -y; mildew names a damp, moldy growth and the ending -y means 'full of' or 'having'. So, mildewy means 'smelling or looking like mildew'.