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Mossed

 - 4 dictionary results

moss

  [maws, mos]
Use Mossed in a Sentence
–noun
1. any tiny, leafy-stemmed, flowerless plant of the class Musci, reproducing by spores and growing in tufts, sods, or mats on moist ground, tree trunks, rocks, etc.
2. a growth of such plants.
3. any of various similar plants, as Iceland moss or club moss.
4. Chiefly Scot. and North England. a swamp or bog.
–verb (used with object)
5. to cover with a growth of moss: to moss a crumbling wall.
Origin:
bef. 1000; ME mos(se), OE mos moss, bog; akin to G Moos, ON mȳrr mire

Related forms:
mosslike, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To Mossed
moss   (môs, mŏs)   
n.  

    1. Any of various green, usually small, nonvascular plants of the class Musci of the division Bryophyta.

    2. A patch or covering of such plants.

  2. Any of various other unrelated plants having a similar appearance or manner of growth, such as the club moss, Irish moss, and Spanish moss.

tr.v.   mossed, moss·ing, moss·es
To cover with moss.

[Middle English, from Old English mos, bog, and from Medieval Latin mossa, moss (of Germanic origin).]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

moss 
O.E. meos "moss," related to mos "bog," from P.Gmc. *musan (cf. O.H.G. mios, Ger. Moos), also in part from O.N. mosi "moss, bog," and M.L. mossa "moss," from the same Gmc. source, from PIE *meus- (cf. L. muscus "moss," Lith. musai "mold, mildew," O.C.S. muchu "moss"), from base *meu- "moist, marsh." All the Gmc. languages have the word in both senses, which is natural since moss is the characteristic plant of boggy places. It is impossible to say which sense is original.
"Selden Moseþ þe Marbelston þat men ofte treden." ["Piers Plowman," 1362]
Scott (1805) revived 17c. moss-trooper "freebooter infesting Scottish border marshes." Mossback "conservative" is 1878, originally of poor whites from Carolina, originally (1872) in ref. to those who hid out to avoid service in the Confederate army (and would have stayed out till the moss grew on their backs).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: moss
Pronunciation: 'mos
Function: noun
1 : any of a class (Musci) of bryophytic plants having a small leafy often tufted stem bearingsex organs at its tip —see SPHAGNUM
2 : any of various plants resembling mosses in appearance orhabit of growth —see CLUB MOSS, ICELANDMOSS, IRISH MOSS
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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