Definitions

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

  • noun The moon when only half its disk is illuminated.
  • noun Something, such as the lunula of a fingernail, that is shaped like a crescent.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A species of rudder-fish, Medialuna californiensis, found on the coast of southern California.
  • noun The moon at the quarters, when half its disk appears illuminated.
  • noun Something in the shape of a half-moon, or, loosely, of a crescent.
  • noun In fortification, an outwork composed of two faces forming a salient angle whose gorge is in the form of a crescent or a half-moon.
  • noun In mining, a scaffold in a shaft, having a plan of nearly the shape of a half-moon.

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

  • noun The moon at the quarters, when half its disk appears illuminated.
  • noun The shape of a half-moon; a crescent.
  • noun (Fort.) An outwork composed of two faces, forming a salient angle whose gorge resembles a half-moon; -- now called a ravelin.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A marine, sparoid, food fish of California (Cæsiosoma Californiense). The body is ovate, blackish above, blue or gray below. Called also medialuna.

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

  • noun the moon, in its first or last quarter, when only half the face is illuminated
  • noun anything shaped like a crescent, especially the base of a fingernail

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

  • noun the time at which the Moon is at first or last quarter when half its face is illuminated
  • noun the crescent-shaped area at the base of the human fingernail

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

half- +‎ moon

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Examples

  • moon is 50 percent illuminated at its First or Last Quarter phase; also sometimes called the "half-moon", that it would be shining only half as bright as a full moon.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • The spider is clamped by a sheet of wood with a half-moon aperture for its abdomen.

    The gossamer cape: spun by a million spiders 2012

  • In the crowd watching the competition, held mid-way between one end of this half-moon beach at Melaque and the other end at Barra de Navidad, are many of the hundreds of tourists who come here for the sun, sand and (some of them) the surf.

    Mexico's endless Pacific beach: sun, surf, sand, seafood and solitude 2009

  • Some looked like toy crusader castles, with cylindrical turrets and half-moon windows.

    Day of Honey Annia Ciezadlo 2011

  • A bright half-moon clung to the side of the main house like something unfinished, and Neal could see the fever trees that lined the drive, thick with roosting vultures, bald-headed and silent, and the rolling tilt of the hills that clustered on the horizon and then dropped off into Ngorongoro.

    The Laugh T 2009

  • He shows me what is inside the bowl—a tiny scorpion curled into a half-moon.

    The Memory Palace Mira Bartók 2011

  • Cal eyed the window through his half-moon reading glasses.

    Three Stages of Amazement Carol Edgarian 2011

  • In the crowd watching the competition, held mid-way between one end of this half-moon beach at Melaque and the other end at Barra de Navidad, are many of the hundreds of tourists who come here for the sun, sand and (some of them) the surf.

    Mexico's endless Pacific beach: sun, surf, sand, seafood and solitude 2009

  • No need to see the faded green wallpaper, the tired carpet, the half-moon telephone table, and the coat-stand in the hallway.

    The Priest Gerard O’Donovan 2011

  • As we passed the point the whole cove burst upon our view, a half-moon of white sandy beach upon which broke a huge surf, and which was covered with myriads of seals.

    Chapter 28 2010

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