moth

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Any of numerous insects of the order Lepidoptera, generally distinguished from butterflies by their nocturnal activity, hairlike or feathery antennae, stout bodies, and the frenulum that holds the front and back wings together.
2. n. A clothes moth.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A nocturnal or crepuscular lepidopterous insect; a member of the order Lepidoptera and suborder Heterocera. Moths resemble butterflies, but for the most part fly by night instead of by day, and their antennæ, though exhibiting great diversity of size and shape, are not rhopalocerous or clubbed at the end like those of butterflies. There are many families and very numerous genera and species. Aside from numberless specific names, moths are distinguished by the leading families under English names. Hawk-moths are Sphingidœ and related families; butterfly hawk-moths, Uraniidœ (various popular names), Zygœnidœ; clear-winged hawk-moths, Ægeriidœ; swift-moths, Hpialidœ; lappet-moths or silkworm-moths, Bombgcidæ; tiger-moths, Arctiidœ; lackey-moths, Lithosiidœ; rustic moths, Noctuidœ; geometrid moths, Geometridœ; meal-moths, Pyralidœ; leaf-rolling moths, Tortricidæ; ermine-moths, Yponomeutidœ; leaf-mining moths, Tineidœ; plume-moths, Alueitidœ (or Pterophoridœ). The tineids include the various small moths injurious to carpets and other woolen fabrics. The smaller moths, of several families, are often collectively designated Microlepidoptera. Various small white mealy moths are called millers. See the above names, and cuts under sphinx, Bombyx, Cidaria, Eacles, Carpocapsa, and Agrotis.
2. n. Any larva that destroys woolen fabrics.
3. n. Figuratively, one who or that which gradually and silently eats, consumes, or wastes anything.
4. n. An obsolete variant of mote.
5. n. In India, a trailing dwarf bean, Phaseolus aconitifolius, cultivated for food and fodder. Also called Turkish gram. See gram.

Wiktionary

1. n. The plant Vigna aconitifolia, known as moth bean.
2. n. A usually nocturnal insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from butterflies by feather-like antennae.
3. v. intransitive To hunt for moths.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete A mote.
2. n. (Zoöl.) Any nocturnal lepidopterous insect, or any not included among the butterflies
3. n. (Zoöl.) Any lepidopterous insect that feeds upon garments, grain, etc.. See these terms under Clothes, Grain, etc.
4. n. (Zoöl.) Any one of various other insects that destroy woolen and fur goods, etc., esp. the larvæ of several species of beetles of the genera Dermestes and Anthrenus. Carpet moths are often the larvæ of Anthrenus. See Carpet beetle, under Carpet, Dermestes, Anthrenus.
5. n. Anything which gradually and silently eats, consumes, or wastes any other thing.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. typically crepuscular or nocturnal insect having a stout body and feathery or hairlike antennae