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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A fool.
  2. n. A freak.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A monster; a deformed creature.
  2. n. A dolt; a stupid fellow.
  3. n. A mole or mass of fleshy matter generated in the uterus; a false conception.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A foolish person.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A monster; a false conception; a mass of fleshy matter, generated in the uterus.
  2. n. A dolt; a stupid fellow.

Etymologies

  1. Earlier, unformed embryo (from the supposed influence of the moon).

Examples

  • “That's what's happened in less far-reaching schemes in the past and that was the objective of these plans,Peter Taylor-GoobyProfessor of social policy, University of Kent• Tim Dowling's article was a great introduction to gallery rage G2, 10 May, but I must add to the list of outrages: standing four inches from the painting; pontificating at 100 decibels; wandering around like a mooncalf and randomly blocking the vision of all and sundry.”

    The Guardian: Letters: Artistic vision

  • “Of those mooncalf, ill-fitting, ineffably strange examples he lists, his first and most outstanding is The Island of Doctor Moreau.”

    The Guardian: The stars of modern SF pick the best science fiction

  • “My son, the brutal mooncalf, is still alive, though barely, starving and buried inside some mountain.”

    Simon & Schuster: Deeper

  • “I infer rather than learn from his narrative that he was captured by the mooncalf herds under the direction of these other Selenites who”

    First Men in the Moon

  • “From a partially divided carcass of a mooncalf that we presently saw, I am inclined to believe it must have been mooncalf flesh.”

    First Men in the Moon

  • “The strange and (except for the want of mandibles and palps) most insect-like head of the mooncalf-minders underwent, indeed, the most incredible transformations: here it was broad and low, here high and narrow; here its leathery brow was drawn out into horns and strange features; here it was whiskered and divided, and there with a grotesquely human profile.”

    First Men in the Moon

  • “They may think we are new animals, a new sort of mooncalf perhaps!”

    First Men in the Moon

  • “Outside began a terrific bellowing, as if a mooncalf were in trouble.”

    First Men in the Moon

  • “I had realised that we might work from mooncalf to mooncalf up the cave until we were near enough to charge home.”

    First Men in the Moon

  • “His thoughts are of mooncalf pastures, and his dialect an accomplished mooncalf technique.”

    First Men in the Moon

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘mooncalf’.

Comments

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‘mooncalf’ has been looked up 1757 times, loved by 7 people, added to 35 lists, commented on 5 times, and has a Scrabble score of 15.