moat
pronunciation
How to pronounce moat in British English:
UK [məʊt]
How to pronounce moat in American English:
US [moʊt]
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- Noun:
- ditch dug as a fortification and usually filled with water
Word Origin
- moat
- moat: [14] The word moat originally meant a ‘mound’ or ‘embankment’ (this has since been hived off into the specialized form motte). The word was borrowed from Old French mote or motte ‘hill, mound’, whose ultimate source was probably a Gaulish mutt or mutta. The use of the word for the mound on which a castle keep was built led in Old French or Anglo-Norman to its reapplication to the ditch surrounding such a mound.
- moat (n.)
- mid-14c., from Old French mote "mound, hillock, embankment; castle built on a hill" (12c.; Modern French motte), from Medieval Latin mota "mound, fortified height," of unknown origin, perhaps from Gaulish mutt, mutta. Sense shifted in Norman French from the castle mound to the ditch dug around it. As a verb, "to surround with a moat," early 15c.
Synonym
Example
- 1. First , mr slim benefits from what mr buffett calls a wide moat .
- 2. Politicians had never been held high in public esteem but billing taxpayers for the cost of cleaning out the moat at the family estate was a claim too far .
- 3. That moat of mercury also presents another reason why archaeologists are loath to explore the tomb just yet - doing so would likely be very dangerous , according to soil samples around the tomb , which indicate extremely high levels of mercury contamination .
- 4. It 's a rooftop bar at the boutique emperor hotel that opened a few months ago just outside the east gate of the forbidden city , a stone 's throw from the moat .
- 5. Microsoft attempted to dig its own moat by simply shutting out its competitors , until it was stopped by the courts .