moth

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Any flying insect of the order Lepidoptera not in the superfamily Papilionoidea, most species of which are nocturnal and can be distinguished from butterflies by feather-like antennae.

   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. 2
   noun

   A liver spot, especially an irregular or feathery one.

   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.

3. 3
   noun

   typically crepuscular or nocturnal insect having a stout body and feathery or hairlike antennae

4. 4
   noun

   Anything that gradually and silently eats, consumes, or wastes any other thing.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Moth originally referred in Old English to parasitic pests such as maggots or worms, especially the larva of the clothes moth. The name later extended first to the adult clothes moth and then to similar insects more generally.

From Middle English moth, moththe, motthe, moght, mohþe, mouȝte, from Old English moþþe, mohþe, mohþa (“any destructive insect larva”), from Proto-West Germanic *moþþō, *mottō, from Proto-Germanic *muþþô, *muttô (“moth, worm”), from Proto-Indo-European *mutn-, *mut- (“worm”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Motte (“moth”), West Frisian mot (“moth”), Dutch mot (“moth”), German Low German Motte, Mott (“moth”), German Motte (“moth”), Swedish mott (“moth”) and Norwegian Nynorsk mott (“moth”).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary