molder ˈmōl-dər verb
: break down, decay
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The word molder has appeared in 20 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Sept. 26 in “Florence’s Slow-Motion Havoc Leaves Thousands of Evacuees in Limbo” by Alan Blinder and Chris Dixon:
With the storm still wreaking slow-motion havoc long after its winds dwindled away, Ms. Brewington and thousands of other evacuees across the Carolinas are in an exhausting, dispiriting limbo — a sad staple of most natural disasters but with a pace that seems particularly cruel this time.
Since it made landfall on Sept. 14, the storm and its aftermath have been blamed for at least 45 deaths in the Carolinas, and about 1,800 people remain in shelters at schools, recreation centers and National Guard armories. Uncounted thousands more evacuees are staying with relatives or friends, or have crowded into hotels, while their homes molder, insurance adjusters crisscross the region and, in some downstream communities, the floodwaters rise again.
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