Moot (mōt) v. See 1st Mot . [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

Moot (mōt) noun (Shipbuilding) A ring for gauging wooden pins.

Moot transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Mooted ; present participle & verbal noun Mooting .] [ Middle English moten , motien , Anglo-Saxon mōtan to meet or assemble for conversation, to discuss, dispute, from mōt , gemōt , a meeting, an assembly; akin to Icelandic mōt , Middle High German muoz . Confer Meet to come together.]
1. To argue for and against; to debate; to discuss; to propose for discussion.

A problem which hardly has been mentioned, much less mooted , in this country.

Sir W. Hamilton.

2. Specifically: To discuss by way of exercise; to argue for practice; to propound and discuss in a mock court.

First a case is appointed to be mooted by certain young men, containing some doubtful controversy.

Sir T. Elyot.

Moot intransitive verb To argue or plead in a supposed case.

There is a difference between mooting and pleading; between fencing and fighting.

B. Jonson.

Moot noun [ Anglo-Saxon mōt , gemōt , a meeting; -- usually in comp.] [ Written also mote .]
1. A meeting for discussion and deliberation; esp., a meeting of the people of a village or district, in Anglo-Saxon times, for the discussion and settlement of matters of common interest; -- usually in composition; as, folk- moot . J. R. Green.

2. [ From Moot , v. ] A discussion or debate; especially, a discussion of fictitious causes by way of practice.

The pleading used in courts and chancery called moots .

Sir T. Elyot.

Moot case , a case or question to be mooted; a disputable case; an unsettled question. Dryden. -- Moot court , a mock court, such as is held by students of law for practicing the conduct of law cases. -- Moot point , a point or question to be debated; a doubtful question.

Moot adjective Subject, or open, to argument or discussion; undecided; debatable; mooted.

Moot-hall, Moot-house noun [ Anglo-Saxon mōth...s .] A hall for public meetings; a hall of judgment. [ Obsolete] "The moot- hall of Herod." Wyclif.

Moot-hill noun (O. Eng. Law) A hill of meeting or council; an elevated place in the open air where public assemblies or courts were held by the Saxons; - - called, in Scotland, mute-hill . J. R. Green.

Mootable adjective Capable of being mooted.

Mooter noun A disputer of a mooted case.

Mootman noun ; plural Mootmen (O. Eng. Law) One who argued moot cases in the inns of court.

Mop noun [ See Mope .] A made-up face; a grimace. "What mops and mowes it makes!" Beau. & Fl.

Mop intransitive verb To make a wry mouth. [ Obsolete] Shak.

Mop noun [ CF. W. mop , mopa , Ir. moipal , Gael. moibeal , moibean ; or Old French mappe a napkin (see Map , Napkin ).]
1. An implement for washing floors, or the like, made of a piece of cloth, or a collection of thrums, or coarse yarn, fastened to a handle.

2. A fair where servants are hired. [ Prov. Eng.]

3. The young of any animal; also, a young girl; a moppet. [ Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

Mop head . (a) The end of a mop, to which the thrums or rags are fastened . (b) A clamp for holding the thrums or rags of a mop. [ U.S.]

Mop transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Mopped ; present participle & verbal noun Mopping .] To rub or wipe with a mop, or as with a mop; as, to mop a floor; to mop one's face with a handkerchief.

Mopboard noun (Carp.) A narrow board nailed against the wall of a room next to the floor; skirting board; baseboard. See Baseboard .

Mope intransitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Moped ; present participle & verbal noun Moping .] [ Confer Dutch moppen to pout, Prov. German muffen to sulk.] To be dull and spiritless. " Moping melancholy." Milton.

A sickly part of one true sense
Could not so mope .

Shak.

Mope transitive verb To make spiritless and stupid. [ Obsolete]

Mope noun A dull, spiritless person. Burton.

Mope-eyed adjective Shortsighted; purblind.

Mopeful adjective Mopish. [ R.]

Mopish adjective Dull; spiritless; dejected. -- Mop"ish*ly , adverb -- Mop"ish*ness , noun

Moplah noun [ Malayalam māpplia .] One of a class of Mohammedans in Malabar.

Moppet noun [ From 3d Mop .]
1. A rag baby; a puppet made of cloth; hence, also, in fondness, a little girl, or a woman.

2. (Zoology) A long-haired pet dog.

Mopsey, Mopsy noun
1. A moppet.

2. A slatternly, untidy woman. Halliwell.

Mopsical adjective Shortsighted; mope-eyed.

Mopstick noun The long handle of a mop.

Mopus (mō"pŭs) noun A mope; a drone. [ Obsolete] Swift.

Moquette noun [ French] A kind of carpet having a short velvety pile.

Mora noun [ Italian ] A game of guessing the number of fingers extended in a quick movement of the hand, -- much played by Italians of the lower classes.

Mora noun (Botany) A leguminous tree of Guiana and Trinidad ( Dimorphandra excelsa ); also, its timber, used in shipbuilding and making furniture.

Mora noun [ Latin ] (Rom. & Civil Law) Delay; esp., culpable delay; postponement.

Moraine noun [ French Confer Prov. German mur stones broken off, Italian mora a heap of stones, hillock, German mürbe soft, broken up, Old High German muruwi , Anglo-Saxon mearu tender, Greek ... to cause to wither, Sanskrit mlā to relax.] (Geol.) An accumulation of earth and stones carried forward and deposited by a glacier. Lyell.

» If the moraine is at the extremity of the glacier it is a terminal moraine ; if at the side, a lateral moraine ; if parallel to the side on the central portion of the glacier, a medial moraine . See Illust. of Glacier . In the last case it is formed by the union of the lateral moraines of the branches of the glacier. A ground moraine is one beneath the mass of ice.

Morainic adjective Of or pertaining to a moranie.

Moral adjective [ French, from Italian moralis , from mos , moris , manner, custom, habit, way of life, conduct.]
1. Relating to duty or obligation; pertaining to those intentions and actions of which right and wrong, virtue and vice, are predicated, or to the rules by which such intentions and actions ought to be directed; relating to the practice, manners, or conduct of men as social beings in relation to each other, as respects right and wrong, so far as they are properly subject to rules.

Keep at the least within the compass of moral actions, which have in them vice or virtue.

Hooker.

Mankind is broken loose from moral bands.

Dryden.

She had wandered without rule or guidance in a moral wilderness.

Hawthorne.

2. Conformed to accepted rules of right; acting in conformity with such rules; virtuous; just; as, a moral man. Used sometimes in distinction from religious ; as, a moral rather than a religious life.

The wiser and more moral part of mankind.

Sir M. Hale.

3. Capable of right and wrong action or of being governed by a sense of right; subject to the law of duty.

A moral agent is a being capable of those actions that have a moral quality, and which can properly be denominated good or evil in a moral sense.

J. Edwards.

4. Acting upon or through one's moral nature or sense of right, or suited to act in such a manner; as, a moral arguments; moral considerations. Sometimes opposed to material and physical ; as, moral pressure or support.

5. Supported by reason or probability; practically sufficient; -- opposed to legal or demonstrable ; as, a moral evidence; a moral certainty.

6. Serving to teach or convey a moral; as, a moral lesson; moral tales.

Moral agent , a being who is capable of acting with reference to right and wrong. -- Moral certainty , a very high degree or probability, although not demonstrable as a certainty; a probability of so high a degree that it can be confidently acted upon in the affairs of life; as, there is a moral certainty of his guilt. -- Moral insanity , insanity, so called, of the moral system; badness alleged to be irresponsible. -- Moral philosophy , the science of duty; the science which treats of the nature and condition of man as a moral being, of the duties which result from his moral relations, and the reasons on which they are founded. -- Moral play , an allegorical play; a morality. [ Obsolete] -- Moral sense , the power of moral judgment and feeling; the capacity to perceive what is right or wrong in moral conduct, and to approve or disapprove, independently of education or the knowledge of any positive rule or law. -- Moral theology , theology applied to morals; practical theology; casuistry.

Moral noun
1. The doctrine or practice of the duties of life; manner of living as regards right and wrong; conduct; behavior; -- usually in the plural.

Corrupt in their morals as vice could make them.

South.

2. The inner meaning or significance of a fable, a narrative, an occurrence, an experience, etc.; the practical lesson which anything is designed or fitted to teach; the doctrine meant to be inculcated by a fiction; a maxim.

Thus may we gather honey from the weed,
And make a moral of the devil himself.

Shak.

To point a moral , or adorn a tale.

Johnson.

We protest against the principle that the world of pure comedy is one into which no moral enters.

Macaulay.

3. A morality play. See Morality , 5.

Moral intransitive verb To moralize. [ Obsolete] Shak.

Morale noun [ French See Moral , adjective ] The moral condition, or the condition in other respects, so far as it is affected by, or dependent upon, moral considerations, such as zeal, spirit, hope, and confidence; mental state, as of a body of men, an army, and the like.

Moraler noun A moralizer. [ Obsolete] Shak.

Moralism noun A maxim or saying embodying a moral truth. Farrar.

Moralist noun [ Confer French moraliste .]
1. One who moralizes; one who teaches or animadverts upon the duties of life; a writer of essays intended to correct vice and inculcate moral duties. Addison.

2. One who practices moral duties; a person who lives in conformity with moral rules; one of correct deportment and dealings with his fellow-creatures; -- sometimes used in contradistinction to one whose life is controlled by religious motives.

The love (in the moralist of virtue, but in the Christian) of God himself.

Hammond.

Morality noun ; plural Moralities . [ Latin moralitas : confer French moralité .]
1. The relation of conformity or nonconformity to the moral standard or rule; quality of an intention, a character, an action, a principle, or a sentiment, when tried by the standard of right.

The morality of an action is founded in the freedom of that principle, by virtue of which it is in the agent's power, having all things ready and requisite to the performance of an action, either to perform or not perform it.

South.

2. The quality of an action which renders it good; the conformity of an act to the accepted standard of right.

Of moralitee he was the flower.

Chaucer.

I am bold to think that morality is capable of demonstration.

Locke.

3. The doctrines or rules of moral duties, or the duties of men in their social character; ethics.

The end of morality is to procure the affections to obey reason, and not to invade it.

Bacon.

The system of morality to be gathered out of . . . ancient sages falls very short of that delivered in the gospel.

Swift.

4. The practice of the moral duties; rectitude of life; conformity to the standard of right; virtue; as, we often admire the politeness of men whose morality we question.

5. A kind of allegorical play, so termed because it consisted of discourses in praise of morality between actors representing such characters as Charity, Faith, Death, Vice, etc. Such plays were occasionally exhibited as late as the reign of Henry VIII. Strutt.

6. Intent; meaning; moral. [ Obsolete]

Taketh the morality thereof, good men.

Chaucer.

Moralization noun [ Confer French moralisation .]
1. The act of moralizing; moral reflections or discourse.

2. Explanation in a moral sense. T. Warton.

Moralize (mŏr" a l*īz) transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Moralized ; present participle & verbal noun Moralizing .] [ Confer French moraliser .]
1. To apply to a moral purpose; to explain in a moral sense; to draw a moral from.

This fable is moralized in a common proverb.

L'Estrange.

Did he not moralize this spectacle?

Shak.

2. To furnish with moral lessons, teachings, or examples; to lend a moral to.

While chastening thoughts of sweetest use, bestowed
By Wisdom, moralize his pensive road.

Wordsworth.

3. To render moral; to correct the morals of.

It had a large share in moralizing the poor white people of the country.

D. Ramsay.

4. To give a moral quality to; to affect the moral quality of, either for better or worse.

Good and bad stars moralize not our actions.

Sir T. Browne.

Moralize intransitive verb To make moral reflections; to regard acts and events as involving a moral.

Moralizer noun One who moralizes.

Morally adverb
1. In a moral or ethical sense; according to the rules of morality.

By good, good morally so called, "bonum honestum" ought chiefly to be understood.

South.

2. According to moral rules; virtuously. "To live morally ." Dryden.

3. In moral qualities; in disposition and character; as, one who physically and morally endures hardships.

4. In a manner calculated to serve as the basis of action; according to the usual course of things and human judgment; according to reason and probability.

It is morally impossible for an hypocrite to keep himself long upon his guard.

L'Estrange.

Morass noun [ Middle English marras , mareis (perh. through Dutch moeras ), from French marais , probably from Latin mare sea, in Late Latin , any body of water; but perhaps influenced by some German word. See Mere a lake, and confer Marsh .] A tract of soft, wet ground; a marsh; a fen.

Morass ore . (Min.) See Bog ore , under Bog .

morassy adjective Marshy; fenny. [ R.] Pennant.

Morate noun (Chemistry) A salt of moric acid.