MOTHBALL


Meaning of MOTHBALL in English

I. ˈ ̷ ̷ˌ ̷ ̷ noun

Etymology: moth (I) + ball

1. : a ball of the size of a marble made formerly of camphor but now of naphthalene and used to keep moths from clothing

2. mothballs plural : the condition of being put into protective storage or relegated to a reserve, standby, or caretaker status

the warships in mothballs at the Puget Sound Naval shipyard — New York Times

a million-dollar aluminum powder plant … is being taken out of mothballs Monday — Wall Street Journal

then the war ended and mothballs took over — E.L.Beach

also : a state of having been rejected for further use or dismissed from further consideration

you can put that idea into mothballs and forget it

II. transitive verb

( -ed/-ing/-s )

: to inactivate and preserve (as a ship) chiefly by dehumidification

plastic … is sprayed over the gun mount of a ship being mothballed — All Hands

our sick bay had been mothballed — J.J.Micka

the packing plant mothballed for five years — Newsweek

III. adjective

: preserved, inactivated

mothball ships

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.