And now, Words and Their Stories, from VOA Learning English.
Today, we talk about making things.
When you make things using a mold, the material takes the shape of the mold, and everything comes out the same. So, if you have a mold of a duck and put clay inside it, you will have a lot of ducks made out of clay with the same shape. They will look exactly like each other.
Now, if you break the mold, you have to shape the clay by hand to make one duck at a time. As a result, all of the hand-made ducks will look different. Each one is special and unique.
That is where we get the expression to break the mold.
The dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster says to break the mold mean “you do something in a completely new way.”
Those who break the mold usually try to find new ways to deal with a problem. They do things differently from what has been done before. They try new methods and do not follow what is usually done.
We also call these new ways and methods fresh, one-of-a-kind, or novel.
For example, after a toy company lost money for three straight years, the owner tried something completely different. She asked young children to develop new toys for the company. And it worked. The new toys sold very well. So, we say she broke the mold of toy development by asking children instead of experts to design new toys for the company.
We also use this expression to break the mold to “describe a very unusual or admired person.”
Let’s look at the story of Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States. His father was a black man from Kenya; his mother was a white American from the Midwestern state of Kansas. By 2009, only five Black Americans had ever served in the U.S. Senate. Yet, Obama defeated all other well-known candidates to become the first Black American president in the country’s history. Even those who did not vote for Obama agreed that he broke the mold.
The expression is usually used to praise someone. But people sometimes use it to describe someone a bit unusual as well. Used this way, we might say, “Well, they certainly broke the mold when they made her!”
And that’s the end of this Words and Their Stories.
Do you have a similar expression in your language? Or do you have an expression or idiom you would like us to explain? Send us an email at LearningEnglish@VOANews.com.
Until next time, I’m Anna Matteo.
Anna Matteo and Hai Do wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English.
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Words in This Story
mold – n. the frame on, around, or in which something is constructed or shaped
unique – adj. being the only one of its kind : being the only one : very unusual
novel – adj. new and not resembling something formerly known or used