Molly (fastener)

A molly or molly bolt (often misspelled moly^[1]) is a type of screw fastener that fastens objects to plaster or gypsum board hollow walls by providing an anchor to be lodged inside a hole and expanded once in position. Larger sizes permit reasonably heavy objects, such as shelving, flatscreen-TV mounts or central-heating radiators, to be attached to drywall in locations where there is no stud behind the drywall. For heavy objects, multiple molly bolts may be required.

The name Molly was formerly trademarked^[2] but is now often used in generic reference. Other names used for this same general type of fastener include hollow-wall anchor and hollow-door anchor, sometimes with design variations but always with the same design theme of expansion via deformation as the screw is tightened. The name drywall anchor sometimes is used in a way that includes both mollies and plastic deformable anchors, and sometimes it is used to distinguish the plastic type (wall plugs) from mollies.