Word.ws English Dictionary

breaking the mold

breaking the mold is the present participle and gerund of break the mold.

Meaning of break the mold

Verb

break the mold (third-person singular simple present breaks the mold, present participle breaking the mold, simple past broke the mold, past participle broken the mold)

  1. (idiomatic) To depart from a traditional pattern; to defy convention.
    • A man has to be what he is, Joey. Can't break the mould. I tried it and it didn't work for me.1953, A. B. Guthrie Jr., Jack Sher, Shane, spoken by Shane (Alan Ladd)
  2. (idiomatic) To make it impossible for an identical copy to be made.
    • When they made that one, they broke the mold.

Questions about breaking the mold

What is breaking the mold the present participle and gerund of?
Breaking the mold is the present participle and gerund of break the mold.

Words near breaking the mold in the dictionary

  1. breaking the fourth wall
  2. breaking the ice
  3. breaking the internet
  4. breaking the internets
  5. breaking the interwebs
  6. breaking the mold
  7. breaking the mould
  8. breaking the news
  9. breaking the Sabbath
  10. breaking the seal
  11. breaking the silence

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: breaking the mold (page history and authors); break the mold (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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