Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A deep wide ditch, usually filled with water, typically surrounding a fortified medieval town, fortress, or castle as a protection against assault.
- n. A ditch similar to one surrounding a fortification: A moat separates the animals in the zoo from the spectators.
- v. To surround with or as if with a moat.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A mound; a hill.
- n. In fortification, a ditch or deep trench dug round the rampart of a castle or other fortified place, and often filled with water.
- n. A building; dwelling; abode.
- To surround with a ditch for defense; also, to make or serve as a moat for.
- n. An obsolete spelling of mote.
- In mining, to puddle; cover with earth so as to exclude air, as a mine shaft in case of an underground fire.
Wiktionary
- n. A deep, wide defensive ditch, normally filled with water, surrounding a fortified habitation.
- n. An aspect of a business which makes it more "defensible" from competitors, either because of the nature of its products, services, franchise or other reason.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A deep trench around the rampart of a castle or other fortified place, sometimes filled with water; a ditch.
- v. To surround with a moat.
WordNet 3.0
- n. ditch dug as a fortification and usually filled with water
Etymologies
- Middle English mote, mound, moat, from Old French, mound, or Medieval Latin mota.
Examples
“That is a characteristic he has long sought in investments, which he calls a "moat" against competition.”
The Wall Street Journal: Buffett Bets $10.7 Billion in Biggest Tech Foray
“Saving the day on the other side of the moat is my skinny-ass Haitian neighbor Gustav, he literally pulls me up along the dirt out the moat!”
“Mr. GLASSMAN: I would put -- we recommend putting most of it or let's say $50 or $60 of it into growth stocks; that is to say larger companies that have shown in the past that they can increase their earnings at a pretty good clip and have a-- what we call a moat around their business, a kind of a franchise.”
Dow 36,000: The New Strategy for Profiting from the Coming Rise in the Stock Market
“Outside the moat is a fine walk, with a view of the sea.”
“It's like handing the reader the keys to the kingdom and then saying, sorry, the moat is clogged up and we won't be re-opening until 6: 00 p.m. tomorrow.”
“There are several other kinds of grain in use amongst the Natives for the use of cattle; one called moat, [24] of an olive green colour.”
“One day, leaving this idyllic perch – the moat is broad and green and a mile long on each of its four sides – we went to visit the over seven hundred pages of the Buddha’s teachings.”
“Lions are born with the ability to swim, zoo officials said, although the zoo's three adult lions don't spend much time in the moat, which is nine feet deep at its deepest.”
“The recent expenses fiasco for UK Members of Parliament (aka moat-gate or scamalot) has changed expectations about the way information is published.”
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