Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A moss of the genus Fontinalis (which see).

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The torn roots, the decaying trunks, and the shattered branches of the dead giants of the ancient wood, were dank with water-moss.

    Round Anvil Rock A Romance Nancy Huston Banks

  • It was trellised with vines, maidenhair ferns, and water-moss making a vivid green background for the golden yellow and burnished copper leaves which still clung to some small cottonwood trees -- the only trees we had seen in Marble Canyon.

    Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico

  • In summer, the sparkling water of the lake rippled under a burning sun, and the thousand tree-trunks left floating in it, held near to the edge by the floating boom of logs, became hot and dry on the upper side, while the green water-moss caught them from beneath.

    A Dozen Ways Of Love Lily Dougall 1890

  • This world, however, has left at Nîmes a far more considerable memento than a few old stones covered with water-moss.

    Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3 France and the Netherlands, Part 1 Various 1885

  • The rest is occupied by cypresses and other funereal umbrage, making a dank circle round an old cracked fountain black with water-moss.

    Italian Hours Henry James 1879

  • This world, however, has left at Nîmes a far more considerable memento than a few old stones covered with water-moss.

    A Little Tour of France Henry James 1879

  • The space between these spots might be overgrown by green grass, with yellow flowers dotted here and there, but the sagacious animal knew, felt, perhaps had even experienced, that the depth there was deceptive; it was one of those peat-diggings, filled in by mud and overgrown by the green of water-moss; he who stepped thereon would be swallowed up in an instant.

    Debts of Honor M��r J��kai 1864

  • Looking down into the river, I once discovered some heavy fragment of the timbers, all green with half a century's growth of water-moss; for, during that length of time, the tramp of horses and human footsteps have ceased, along this ancient highway.

    Mosses from an Old Manse 1846

  • The pieces of marble that are washed by the water are of a snow-white, and partially covered with a bright green water-moss, making a beautiful contrast.

    Passages from the American Notebooks, Volume 1 Nathaniel Hawthorne 1834

  • Can it be that the thronged street of a city will ever pass into this twilight solitude, -- over those soft heaps of the decaying tree-trunks, and through the swampy places, green with water-moss, and penetrate that hopeless entanglement of great trees, which have been uprooted and tossed together by a whirlwind?

    Main Street (From: "The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales") Nathaniel Hawthorne 1834

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