moat
Audio Help [moht] Pronunciation Key
Audio Help [moht] Pronunciation Key –noun
| 1. | a deep, wide trench, usually filled with water, surrounding the rampart of a fortified place, as a town or a castle. |
| 2. | any similar trench, as one used for confining animals in a zoo. |
[Origin: 1325–75; ME mote < OF: clod, mound, of obscure orig.
]
] | Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006. |
moat
To learn more about moat visit Britannica.com
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| moat
Audio Help (mōt) Pronunciation Key
n.
tr.v. moat·ed, moat·ing, moats To surround with or as if with a moat. [Middle English mote, mound, moat, from Old French, mound, or Medieval Latin mota.] |
| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
moat
1362, from O.Fr. mote, from M.L. mota "mound, fortified height," probably from Gaul. mutt, mutta. Sense shifted in Norman Fr. from the castle mound to the ditch dug around it.
| Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper |
| moat | |
noun | |
| ditch dug as a fortification and usually filled with water |
| WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University. |
moat [məut] noun
a deep ditch, dug round a castle etc, usually filled with water
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| Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary, © 2000-2006 K Dictionaries Ltd. |
moat
Ditch\ (?; 224), n.; pl. Ditches. [OE. dich, orig. the same word as dik. See Dike.]1. A trench made in the earth by digging, particularly a trench for draining wet land, for guarding or fencing inclosures, or for preventing an approach to a town or fortress. In the latter sense, it is called also a moat or a fosse. 2. Any long, narrow receptacle for water on the surface of the earth.| Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc. |
Moat
Moat\, n. [OF. mote hill, dike, bank, F. motte clod, turf: cf. Sp. & Pg. mota bank or mound of earth, It. motta clod, LL. mota, motta, a hill on which a fort is built, an eminence, a dike, Prov. G. mott bog earth heaped up; or perh. F. motte, and OF. mote, are from a LL. p. p. of L. movere to move (see Move). The name of moat, properly meaning, bank or mound, was transferred to the ditch adjoining: cf. F. dike and ditch.] (Fort.) A deep trench around the rampart of a castle or other fortified place, sometimes filled with water; a ditch.| Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc. |
MOAT
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