Definitions

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

  • noun The act or an instance of making fast an aircraft or a vessel, as by a cable or anchor.
  • noun A place or structure to which a vessel or aircraft can be moored.
  • noun Equipment, such as anchors or chains, for holding fast a vessel or aircraft.
  • noun Beliefs or familiar ways of thinking that provide psychological stability or security.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Nautical:
  • noun The act of securing a ship or boat in a particular place by means of anchors, etc.
  • noun Mostly in the plural, that by which a ship is confined or secured, as the anchors, chains, and bridles laid athwart the bottom of a river or harbor: as, she lay at her moorings. Hence, generally
  • noun That to which anything is fastened, or by which it is held.

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

  • noun The act of confining a ship to a particular place, by means of anchors or fastenings.
  • noun That which serves to confine a ship to a place, as anchors, cables, bridles, etc.
  • noun The place or condition of a ship thus confined.
  • noun (Naut.) a heavy block of cast iron sometimes used as an anchor for mooring vessels.

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

  • verb Present participle of moor.
  • noun A place to moor a vessel
  • noun The act of securing a vessel with a cable or anchor etc.
  • noun figuratively Something to which one adheres to, or the means that help one maintain a stable position and keep one's identity - moral, intellectual, political, etc.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (nautical) a line that holds an object (especially a boat) in place
  • noun a place where a craft can be made fast

Etymologies

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Examples

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  • Because society has drifted from the spiritual moorings of calling, it has developed some odd and distorted doctrines about finding your calling.

    June 29, 2010

  • My adjectival use: 'Hand me the mooring rope.'

    August 23, 2011