Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A massive, usually stone wall constructed in the sea, used as a breakwater and built to enclose or protect an anchorage or a harbor.
  • noun The anchorage or harbor enclosed by a mole.
  • noun Any of various small insectivorous mammals of the family Talpidae of North America and Eurasia, usually living underground and having a thickset body with light brown to dark gray silky fur, strong forefeet for burrowing, and often rudimentary eyes.
  • noun A machine that bores through hard surfaces, used especially for tunneling through rock.
  • noun A spy who operates from within an organization, especially a double agent operating against his or her own government from within its intelligence establishment.
  • noun In the International System, the base unit used in representing an amount of a substance, equal to the amount of that substance that contains as many atoms, molecules, ions, or other elementary units as the number of atoms in 0.012 kilogram of carbon-12. The number is 6.0221 × 1023, or Avogadro's number.
  • noun A skin lesion, commonly a nevus, that is typically raised and discolored.
  • noun A fleshy abnormal mass formed in the uterus by the degeneration or abortive development of an ovum.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To speak.
  • To clear of molehills.
  • To burrow or form holes in, as a mole: as, to mole the earth.
  • To destroy moles.
  • noun An insectivorous mammal of the family Talpidæ (which see for technical characters).
  • noun A kind of plow or other implement drawn or driven through the subsoil in making drains; a mole-plow.
  • noun The rodent bathyergue or mole-rat of South Africa, Bathyergus maritimus.
  • noun A spot; a stain, as on a garment.
  • noun Specifically
  • noun A small permanent abnormal spot on the surface of the human body, usually of a dark color and slightly elevated, and often hairy; a pigmentary nævus; also, a vascular nævus See nævus.
  • noun A mound or massive work, formed largely of stone, inclosing a harbor or anchorage, to protect it from the violence of the waves.
  • noun A form of ancient Roman mausoleum, consisting of a round tower on a square base, insulated, encompassed with columns, and covered with a dome.
  • noun Coarse meal mixed with salt, in ancient times used in sacrifices.
  • To spot or stain.
  • noun A somewhat shapeless, compact fleshy mass occurring in the uterus, either due to the retention and continued life of the whole or a part of the fetal envelops after the death of the fetus (a maternal or true mole), or being some other body liable to be mistaken for this, as the membrane in membranous dysmenorrhea, or perhaps a polypus (a false mole).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A spot; a stain; a mark which discolors or disfigures.
  • noun A spot, mark, or small permanent protuberance on the human body; esp., a spot which is dark-colored, from which commonly issue one or more hairs.
  • noun A mound or massive work formed of masonry or large stones, etc., laid in the sea, often extended either in a right line or an arc of a circle before a port which it serves to defend from the violence of the waves, thus protecting ships in a harbor; also, sometimes, the harbor itself.
  • noun (Zoöl.) Any insectivore of the family Talpidæ. They have minute eyes and ears, soft fur, and very large and strong fore feet.
  • noun U.S. A plow of peculiar construction, for forming underground drains.
  • noun A spy who lives for years an apparently normal life (to establish a cover) before beginning his spying activities.
  • noun See under Duck.
  • noun See Chrysochlore.
  • noun (Zoöl.) an orthopterous insect of the genus Gryllotalpa, which excavates subterranean galleries, and throws up mounds of earth resembling those of the mole. It is said to do damage by injuring the roots of plants. The common European species (Gryllotalpa vulgaris), and the American (Gryllotalpa borealis), are the best known.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any one of several species of Old World rodents of the genera Spalax, Georychus, and several allied genera. They are molelike in appearance and habits, and their eyes are small or rudimentary.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any one of several species of short-tailed American shrews of the genus Blarina, esp. Blarina brevicauda.
  • noun the duck mole.
  • transitive verb To form holes in, as a mole; to burrow; to excavate.
  • transitive verb Prov. Eng. To clear of molehills.
  • noun A mass of fleshy or other more or less solid matter generated in the uterus.
  • noun A quantity of a substance equal to the molecular weight of a substance expressed in grams; a gram molecule; the basic unit of amount of substance adopted under the System International d'Unites.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A pigmented spot on the skin, a naevus, slightly raised, and sometimes hairy.
  • noun chemistry, physics In the International System of Units, the base unit of amount of substance; the amount of substance of a system which contains as many elementary entities as there are atoms in 0.012 kg of carbon-12. Symbol: mol. The number of atoms is known as Avogadro’s number
  • noun Any of several small, burrowing insectivores of the family Talpidae.
  • noun Any of the burrowing rodents also called mole rats.
  • noun espionage An internal spy, a person who involves himself or herself with an enemy organisation, especially an intelligence or governmental organisation, to determine and betray its secrets from within.
  • noun A moll, a bitch, a slut.
  • noun rare A haven or harbour, protected with such a breakwater.
  • noun A hemorrhagic mass of tissue in the uterus caused by a dead ovum.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the molecular weight of a substance expressed in grams; the basic unit of amount of substance adopted under the Systeme International d'Unites
  • noun spicy sauce often containing chocolate
  • noun a small congenital pigmented spot on the skin

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French môle, from Italian molo, from Late Greek mōlos, from Latin mōlēs, mass, mole.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English molle; possibly akin to mold.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[German Mol, short for Molekulargewicht, molecular weight, from molekular, molecular, from French moléculaire, from molécule, molecule; see molecule.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English māl.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French môle, from Latin mola, millstone, mole; see melə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From moll (from Moll, an archaic nickname for Mary), influenced by the spelling of the word mole ("an internal spy"), and due to /mɒl/ and /məʊl/ merging as [moʊl] in the Australian accent.

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Examples

  • Although the word mole comes from the Nahuatl mulli, meaning sauce or potage, it has been pointed out by culinary anthropologists that very few of the ingredients in mole poblano were indigenous to the New World.

    Demystifying Mole, México's National Dish 2003

  • Although the word mole comes from the Nahuatl mulli, meaning sauce or potage, it has been pointed out by culinary anthropologists that very few of the ingredients in mole poblano were indigenous to the New World.

    Demystifying Mole, México's National Dish 2003

  • Although the word mole comes from the Nahuatl mulli, meaning sauce or potage, it has been pointed out by culinary anthropologists that very few of the ingredients in mole poblano were indigenous to the New World.

    Demystifying Mole, México's National Dish 2003

  • Although the word mole comes from the Nahuatl mulli, meaning sauce or potage, it has been pointed out by culinary anthropologists that very few of the ingredients in mole poblano were indigenous to the New World.

    Demystifying Mole, México's National Dish 2003

  • I'm still eating chicken in mole from the case of it I bought in Xico last April.

    Xico and Fiesta de San Miguel 2005

  • I'm still eating chicken in mole from the case of it I bought in Xico last April.

    Xico and Fiesta de San Miguel 2005

  • The word "mole" is said to be derived from the Nahuatl word molli , which means, essentially, a bunch of ingredients ground up.

    Holy-Moly Lobster Mole J.J. Goode 2011

  • The word "mole" is said to be derived from the Nahuatl word molli , which means, essentially, a bunch of ingredients ground up.

    Holy-Moly Lobster Mole J.J. Goode 2011

  • The mole is about to retreat, but the chip in its brain releases a brief pulse of electricity, which becomes a physical need (a strange one for a mole): go up — see light.

    365 tomorrows » 2009 » October : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day 2009

  • In Puebla and other parts of Mexico where mole is prepared, mole enchiladas, called enmoladas, are a popular way of using leftover mole sauce with whatever filling is handy, be it, chicken, turkey, pork, cheese, or even scrambled eggs.

    The whole enchilada: Thrifty variations on a Mexican classic 2009

Comments

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  • He lifted his feet up from the suck and turned back by the mole of boulders.

    Joyce, Ulysses, 3

    December 30, 2006

  • spy equivalent in value to 007 secret agents, or 25 cagey bees

    November 7, 2007

  • 2 small, dark brown mark on skin

    May 16, 2009

  • Wikipedia tells us that mole sauce is from "(Mexican Spanish, from Nahuatl mulli or molli, 'sauce' or 'concoction')" and is "the generic name for several sauces used in Mexican cuisine, as well as for dishes based on these sauces. Outside of Mexico, it often refers to a specific sauce which is known in Spanish by the more specific name mole poblano. The word is also widely known in the combined form guacamole (avocado concoction). In contemporary Mexico, the term is used for a number of sauces, some quite dissimilar to one another, including black, red, yellow, colorado, green, almendrado, and pipián."

    I do sometimes have to tell grocery clerks that it doesn't have any moles in it.

    August 19, 2010

  • Oh, that reminds me - what do chemists use to make guacamole? The Avocado constant. (See avogadro's number.)

    August 19, 2010