MOSS • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Moss

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/mɔs/ Listen

noun

Moss n.

1.

(Bot.) 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. Note: The term moss is also popularly applied to many other small cryptogamic plants, particularly lichens, species of which are called tree moss, rock moss, coral moss, etc. Fir moss and club moss are of the genus Lycopodium. See Club moss, under Club, and Lycopodium.

2.

A bog; a morass; a place containing peat; as, the mosses of the Scottish border. Note: Moss is used with participles in the composition of words which need no special explanation; as, moss-capped, moss-clad, moss-covered, moss-grown, etc.

Black moss. See under Black, and Tillandsia.

Bog moss. See Sphagnum.

Feather moss, any moss branched in a feathery manner, esp. several species of the genus Hypnum.

Florida moss, Long moss, or Spanish moss. See Tillandsia.

Iceland moss, a lichen. See Iceland Moss.

Irish moss, a seaweed. See Carrageen.

Moss agate (Min.), a variety of agate, containing brown, black, or green mosslike or dendritic markings, due in part to oxide of manganese. Called also Mocha stone.

Moss animal (Zool.), a bryozoan.

Moss berry (Bot.), the small cranberry (Vaccinium Oxycoccus).

Moss campion (Bot.), a kind of mosslike catchfly (Silene acaulis), with mostly purplish flowers, found on the highest mountains of Europe and America, and within the Arctic circle.

Moss land, land produced accumulation of aquatic plants, forming peat bogs of more or less consistency, as the water is grained off or retained in its pores.

Moss pink (Bot.), a plant of the genus Phlox (Phlox subulata), growing in patches on dry rocky hills in the Middle United States, and often cultivated for its handsome flowers.

Moss rose (Bot.), a variety of rose having a mosslike growth on the stalk and calyx. It is said to be derived from the Provence rose.

Moss rush (Bot.), a rush of the genus Juncus (Juncus squarrosus).

Scale moss. See Hepatica.

verb

Moss v. t. (past & past part. mossed; pres. part. mossing) To cover or overgrow with moss. "An oak whose boughs were mossed with age."

See images of 'Moss'

Etymology of 'Moss'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Moss" Quotes from Famous Books

... the mountains had clothed its tender boughs and sprays with a light and evanescent flowering of snow. At any season the lofty palace walls rose over it, and shut it in a pensive seclusion which was loved by the old mother of the painter and by his elderly maiden sister. These often walked on its moss-grown paths, silent as the roses and oleanders to which one could have fancied the blossom of their youth had flown; and sometimes there came to them there, grave, black-gowned priests,—for the painter's was a devout family,—and talked with them in tones ...

— Venetian Life • W. D. Howells

... whose forts and villages are yet found. The population is about 5000, including the whole district, of whom about 300 are Russians, the descendants of Siberian exiles. They dwell in houses made of wood thrown up on the shore, and collected by years of patience, and of moss and clay. The panes of the windows in winter are of ice, six inches thick; in summer, of skins. The better class are neatly and even tastefully dressed, and are clean, which is the very highest praise that can be given to half-civilized as well as ...

— International Weekly Miscellany Of Literature, Art, and Science - Vol. I., July 22, 1850. No. 4. • Various

... Kuban; but the following of the fallow deer in the hills is more common. The hunter searches for the beds of the roes with dogs, or stalking the forests steals upon the herd when browsing upon the tender twigs and the moss of trees, or cropping the herbs along the skirts of the pastures. There are several varieties of them, but all tolerably wild from being so much pursued in the chase; though the sight of this graceful animal is common enough in ...

— Life of Schamyl - And Narrative of the Circassian War of Independence Against Russia • John Milton Mackie

... The mountain was quickly won in this style, and Rollo gained a high ledge where the ground lay more level. He went deliberately here, and used a pair of eyes as quick as might match the feet, though not to notice how the dew sparkled on the moss or how the colours changed in the valley. He was far above the Mountain House, on the wild hillside. The sun had scattered the fog from the lower country, which lay a wide dreamland to tempt the eye, and nearer by the lesser charms of rock and tree, moss and lichen, light and shadow, ...

— Wych Hazel • Susan and Anna Warner

... sport to stand on the quarter-deck and watch all this. Before long there was nothing to be seen on other side but stretches of low swampy land, covered with stunted cypress trees, from which drooped delicate streamers of Spanish moss—a fine place for alligators and Congo snakes. Here and there we passed a yellow sand-bar, and here and there a snag lifted its nose out of the water like ...

— The Story of a Bad Boy • Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Copyright © 2024 Free-Translator.com