moth

Pronunciation

Singular: moth

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mɒθ/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (General American) enPR: môth, IPA^(key): /mɔθ/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /mɑθ/, enPR: mŏth

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒθ

Plural: moths

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /mɒθs/
• (General American)^[1] enPR: môths, môthz, IPA^(key): /mɔθs/, /mɔðz/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /mɑθs/, /mɑðz/
• Rhymes: -ɒθs, -ɒðz

Noun

moth (plural moths)

1. A usually nocturnal insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from butterflies by feather-like antennae.
   • 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 206-7:

     Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.

2. (figuratively) Anything that gradually and silently eats, consumes, or wastes any other thing.

Verb

moth (third-person singular simple present moths, present participle mothing, simple past and past participle mothed)

1. (intransitive) To hunt for moths.

See also

• butterfly
• caterpillar

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /məʊt/
• (General American) enPR: mōt, IPA^(key): /moʊt/
• Rhymes: -əʊt

Noun

moth (countable and uncountable, plural moths)

1. The plant Vigna aconitifolia, moth bean.

Further reading

• Vigna aconitifolia on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Vigna aconitifolia on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Vigna aconitifolia on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• moth at USDA Plants database

Noun

moth (plural moths)

1. Obsolete form of mote.
   • c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act 1, scene 3]:

     So that, dear lords, if I be left behind, / A moth of peace, and he go to the war, / The rites for which I love him are bereft me, / And I a heavy interim shall support / By his dear absence. Let me go with him.

2. (dated) A liver spot, especially an irregular or feathery one.
   • 1895, Good Housekeeping, page 196, ISSN: 0731-3462

     To remove moth patches, wash the spots with a solution of common bicarbonate of soda and water several times a day, until the patches are removed, which will usually be in forty-eight hours.

   • 1999, R. L. Gupta, Directory of Diseases & Cures: In Homoeopathy, page 254, →ISBN.

     Craves for sour things, chalks and eggs, fatty people with light brown spots on the face or liver spots, moth patches on forehead and cheek.

   • 2005, J. D. Patil, Textbook of Applied Materia Medica, page 108, →ISBN.

     There are signs of liver affections as weakness, yellow complexion, liver spots, and moth spot like a saddle over the nose.