Definitions

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

  • noun Informal An extremely conservative or old-fashioned person.
  • noun An old sluggish fish.
  • noun An old turtle with a growth of algae on its back.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A large and old fish, as a bass: so called by anglers, in allusion to the growth of seaweed, etc., which may be found on its back.
  • noun In United States politics, one attached to antiquated notions; an extreme conservative.
  • noun In the southern United States, during the civil war, one who hid himself to avoid conscription.

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

  • noun Political Slang, U.S. A veteran partisan; one who is so conservative in opinion that he may be likened to a stone or old tree covered with moss.

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

  • noun A turtle that, because of its age, has a growth of algae on its back.
  • noun by extension A very conservative or reactionary person, especially one with old-fashioned views.

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

  • noun an extremely old-fashioned conservative

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

moss +‎ back

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