Moss
[mɒs] or [mɔs]
Definition
(n.) A cryptogamous plant of a cellular structure, with distinct stem and simple leaves. The fruit is a small capsule usually opening by an apical lid, and so discharging the spores. There are many species, collectively termed Musci, growing on the earth, on rocks, and trunks of trees, etc., and a few in running water.
(n.) A bog; a morass; a place containing peat; as, the mosses of the Scottish border.
(v. t.) To cover or overgrow with moss.
Editor: Nolan
Definition
n. a family of flowerless plants with branching stems and narrow simple leaves: popularly any small cryptogamic plant esp. a lichen: a piece of ground covered with moss: a bog.—v.t. to cover with moss.—ns. Moss′-back an old fish: a person of antiquated views; Moss′-cheep′er (Scot.) the titlark.—adj. Moss′-grown covered with moss.—ns. Moss′-hag (Scot.) a pit or slough in a bog; Moss′iness; Moss′-land land abounding in peat-bogs; Moss′-rose a variety of rose having a moss-like growth on and below the calyx; Moss′troop′er one of the robbers that used to infest the mosses of the Border.—adj. Moss′y overgrown or abounding with moss.—Iceland moss (see Iceland).
Checker: Reginald
Unserious Contents or Definition
To dream of moss, denotes that you will fill dependent positions, unless the moss grows in rich soil, when you will be favored with honors.
Editor: Olivia
Examples
- In a moment they saw him, and then me; but scarcely had they discovered me than I commenced firing, lying flat upon my belly in the moss. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
- So close was this resemblance, that a native Dyak maintained that the foliaceous excrescences were really moss. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- Miss Moss, a dark-eyed maid in curl-papers, appeared with the teapot, and, smiling, asked the Colonel how he had slep? William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- Victor and vanquished rolled limp and lifeless upon the moss, a huge mass of torn and bloody flesh. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
- Upon this lay a thick layer of moss, leaves, or sawdust. William K. David. Secrets of Wise Men, Chemists and Great Physicians.
- Even the land about Chat Moss was bought up and improved, and all along the line what had been waste stretches began to blossom into towns and villages. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- No trees were to be seen, nor any vegetable growth save a poor brown scrubby moss, freezing in the chinks of rock. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- An immense bog, called Chat Moss, had to be crossed, and Stephenson was the only one of the engineers concerned who did not doubt whether such a crossing were really possible. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- I was NABBED by Moss of Cursitor Street--from whose GILT AND SPLENDID PARLER I write this--the same that had me this time two years. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- A single basket made of moss, once containing plovers' eggs, held all that the poulterer had to say to the rabble. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- It was the united products of infinitesimal vegetable causes, and these were neither stems, leaves, fruit, blades, prickles, lichen, nor moss. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- The clear, cold sunshine glances into the brittle woods and approvingly beholds the sharp wind scattering the leaves and drying the moss. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- A jagged stone was lying among the moss, and this also he carefully examined and retained. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- I alighted upon the soft moss easily and without mishap, and turning saw my enemies lined up along the further wall. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
- He walked past the couch to the open window, and held up the drooping stalk of a moss-rose, looking down at the dainty blend of crimson and green. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- The lower mosses must live in damp, and even the development of the spore of the ferns demands at certain stages extreme wetness. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The great sweep in front of the terrace and entrance stair was black and covered with mosses; the once trim flower-beds rank and weedy. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
Edited by Helen