I. ˈmu̇(ə)r, -u̇ə sometimes ˈmō(ə)r or ˈmȯ(ə)r or ˈmōə or ˈmȯ(ə) noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English mor, from Old English mōr; akin to Middle Dutch moer mire, swamp, Old High German muor swamp, sea, Old Norse mœrr land, marr sea — more at marine
1.
a. chiefly Britain : an extensive area of open rolling infertile land consisting of sand, rock, or peat usually covered with heather, bracken, coarse grass, and sphagnum moss : high moor
an empty desolation of moors, hill and mountain stretching to the Scottish border — G.E.Fussell
— compare heath 2
b. : a boggy area of wasteland usually dominated by grasses and sedges growing in a thick layer of peat : fen
boggy moors are favorite sites for gull colonies — British Birds in Colour
bicycle across the Nantucket moors — a broad, flat expanse of cranberry bogs … and Scotch heather — Look at America: New England
— compare low moor , muskeg
2. Britain
a. : moorland soil : peat
b. : moorland vegetation (as heather)
the natural vegetation is largely moors … with a great amount of heather — Samuel Van Valkenburg & Ellsworth Huntington
c. : a game preserve consisting of moorland
II. noun
( -s )
Usage: usually capitalized
Etymology: Middle English More, from Middle French, from Latin Maurus, probably of Berber origin
1.
a. : a member of a dark-skinned people of mixed Arab and Berber ancestry inhabiting ancient Mauretania in No. Africa and conquering Spain in the 8th century A.D. : moroccan
b. : berber
2. : muslim ; especially : moorman I — compare moro
3.
a. archaic : blackamoor
b. : one of a group of people of mixed Indian, white, and Negro ancestry in central Delaware — compare nanticoke
4. : a goldfish similar to the fringetail but velvety black
III. verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English moren; akin to Old English mǣrels rāp ship's rope, Middle Dutch maren, meren to tie, moor, Old Frisian mere thong, strap, Old High German marawen to tie together, connect, Low German ver moren to moor, and perhaps to Greek mēryesthai to roll up, mermis cord, thread — more at mermis
transitive verb
1. : to make fast with cables and lines or with more than one anchor
a motorboat, moored after dark to a buoy in the harbor — H.M.Parshley
down went the second anchor, and there we were doubly moored — Jack London
moor a dirigible to a mast
moor an airplane to the ground
2. : to attach firmly : tie on
suitcases … having handles can be more firmly moored to a bucking vehicle than some other kinds of luggage — E.J.Kahn
intransitive verb
1. : to secure a boat by mooring : anchor
brought her in through Long Island Sound and moored off Throgs Neck — James Dugan
2. : to be made fast
enables small vessels to moor close to land — J.H.Bennet
IV. noun
( -s )
: the act or process of mooring