Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A deep wide ditch, usually filled with water, typically surrounding a fortified medieval town, fortress, or castle as a protection against assault.
- noun A ditch similar to one surrounding a fortification.
- transitive verb To surround with or as if with a moat.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To surround with a ditch for defense; also, to make or serve as a moat for.
- noun An obsolete spelling of
mote . - noun A mound; a hill.
- noun In fortification, a ditch or deep trench dug round the rampart of a castle or other fortified place, and often filled with water.
- noun A building; dwelling; abode.
- In mining, to puddle; cover with earth so as to exclude air, as a mine shaft in case of an underground fire.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To surround with a moat.
- noun (Fort.) A deep trench around the rampart of a castle or other fortified place, sometimes filled with water; a ditch.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A deep, wide
defensive ditch , normally filled withwater , surrounding afortified habitation . - noun An aspect of a business which makes it more "defensible" from competitors, either because of the nature of its products, services, franchise or other reason.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun ditch dug as a fortification and usually filled with water
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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That is a characteristic he has long sought in investments, which he calls a "moat" against competition.
Buffett Bets $10.7 Billion in Biggest Tech Foray Serena Ng 2011
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Saving the day on the other side of the moat is my skinny-ass Haitian neighbor Gustav, he literally pulls me up along the dirt out the moat!
Archive 2008-03-01 Kate Fleurange 2008
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Saving the day on the other side of the moat is my skinny-ass Haitian neighbor Gustav, he literally pulls me up along the dirt out the moat!
Ditchin' it. Kate Fleurange 2008
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Mr. GLASSMAN: I would put -- we recommend putting most of it or let's say $50 or $60 of it into growth stocks; that is to say larger companies that have shown in the past that they can increase their earnings at a pretty good clip and have a-- what we call a moat around their business, a kind of a franchise.
Dow 36,000: The New Strategy for Profiting from the Coming Rise in the Stock Market 1999
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Outside the moat is a fine walk, with a view of the sea.
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It's like handing the reader the keys to the kingdom and then saying, sorry, the moat is clogged up and we won't be re-opening until 6: 00 p.m. tomorrow.
September 2007 2007
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It's like handing the reader the keys to the kingdom and then saying, sorry, the moat is clogged up and we won't be re-opening until 6: 00 p.m. tomorrow.
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There are several other kinds of grain in use amongst the Natives for the use of cattle; one called moat, [24] of an olive green colour.
Observations on the Mussulmauns of India Descriptive of Their Manners, Customs, Habits and Religious Opinions Made During a Twelve Years' Residence in Their Immediate Society Mrs. Meer Hasan Ali 1885
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But tough competition and low switching costs prevent it from building a long-term moat, and thus prevent it from being a
unknown title 2008
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One day, leaving this idyllic perch – the moat is broad and green and a mile long on each of its four sides – we went to visit the over seven hundred pages of the Buddha’s teachings.
A Letter from Alice Walker to Aung San Suu Kyi Alice Walker Blog Administrator 2009
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