Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A magic herb with black roots and white flowers that was given to Odysseus by Hermes to ward off the spells of Circe.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Like a mole or its habits.
  • noun A fabulous herb of magic power, represented as having a black root and the flower milk-white, said by Homer to have been given by Hermes to Odysseus (Ulysses) to counteract the spells of Circe.
  • noun Wild garlic, Allium Moly. The moly of Dioscorides is said to have been Allium subhirsutum; the dwarf moly is

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A fabulous herb of occult power, having a black root and white blossoms, said by Homer to have been given by Hermes to Ulysses to counteract the spells of Circe.
  • noun (Bot.) A kind of garlic (Allium Moly) with large yellow flowers; -- called also golden garlic.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A magic herb or plant used by Odysseus to overcome Circe.
  • noun Any plant associated with the mythological moly, especially the European allium, Allium moly.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin mōly, from Greek mōlu.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin mōly, from Ancient Greek μῶλυ (probably a loanword).

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Examples

Comments

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  • Diminutive for Molybdenum (according to Gene Wolfe's The Book of the Long Sun). It's probably also a tribute to Douglas Adams for Molybdenum has the atomic number 42.

    August 15, 2009

  • Yeah, short for molybdenum. Pronounced like molly.

    August 16, 2009