Definitions

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

  • noun A pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris heaped for protection or concealment.
  • noun A natural elevation, such as a small hill.
  • noun A group of things collected in a mass or heap: synonym: heap.
  • noun A great deal; a lot.
  • noun Archaeology A large artificial pile of earth or stones often marking a burial site.
  • noun Baseball The slightly elevated pitcher's area in the center of the diamond.
  • noun Archaic A hedge or fence.
  • transitive verb To heap into a raised mass.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To form into mounds; become piled up into mounds.
  • noun A figure of a globe, taken as an emblem of sovereignty.
  • To fortify with a mound; add a barrier, rampart, etc., to.
  • noun A protection; restraint; curb.
  • noun A helmet.
  • noun Might; size.
  • noun An artificial elevation of earth, as one raised as a fortification or part of a fortification, or as a funeral monument; a bank of earth; hence, a bulwark; a rampart or fence.
  • noun A natural elevation presenting the appearance of having been raised artificially; a hillock; a knoll.
  • noun In civil engine., in excavations, a piece of the original ground left at intervals to show the depth.

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

  • noun An artificial hill or elevation of earth; a raised bank; an embarkment thrown up for defense; a bulwark; a rampart; also, a natural elevation appearing as if thrown up artificially; a regular and isolated hill, hillock, or knoll.
  • noun (Zoöl.) See moundbird in the vocabulary.
  • noun (Ethnol.) the tribe, or tribes, of North American aborigines who built, in former times, extensive mounds of earth, esp. in the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Formerly they were supposed to have preceded the Indians, but later investigations go to show that they were, in general, identical with the tribes that occupied the country when discovered by Europeans.
  • noun (Zoöl.) any one of the megapodes. See also moundbird in the vocabulary.
  • noun a mound of refuse shells, collected by aborigines who subsisted largely on shellfish. See Midden, and Kitchen middens.
  • transitive verb To fortify or inclose with a mound.
  • noun A ball or globe forming part of the regalia of an emperor or other sovereign. It is encircled with bands, enriched with precious stones, and surmounted with a cross; -- called also globe.

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

  • noun obsolete, anatomy, measurement, figuratively A hand.
  • noun obsolete A protection; restraint; curb.
  • noun obsolete A helmet.
  • noun obsolete Might; size.
  • noun An artificial hill or elevation of earth; a raised bank; an embankment thrown up for defense; a bulwark; a rampart.
  • noun A natural elevation appearing as if thrown up artificially; a regular and isolated hill, hillock, or knoll.
  • noun baseball Elevated area of dirt upon which the pitcher stands to pitch.
  • noun A ball or globe forming part of the regalia of an emperor or other sovereign. It is encircled with bands, enriched with precious stones, and surmounted with a cross.
  • noun US, vulgar, slang Vulva.
  • verb transitive To fortify with a mound; add a barrier, rampart, etc. to.
  • verb transitive To force or pile into a mound or mounds.

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

  • noun structure consisting of an artificial heap or bank usually of earth or stones
  • noun a small natural hill
  • noun (baseball) the slight elevation on which the pitcher stands
  • verb form into a rounded elevation
  • noun the position on a baseball team of the player who throws the ball for a batter to try to hit
  • noun a collection of objects laid on top of each other

Etymologies

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

[Origin unknown.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From earlier meaning "hedge, fence", from Middle English mound, mund ("protection, boundary, raised earthen rampart"), from Old English mund ("hand, hand of protection, protector, guardianship"), from Proto-Germanic *mundō (“hand”), *munduz (“protection, patron”), from Proto-Indo-European *men-, *man-, *mar- (“hand”). Cognate with Old Frisian mund ("guardianship"), Old High German munt ("hand, protection") (German Mündel ("ward"), Vormund ("a guardian")), Old Norse mund (Icelandic mund, "hand")), Middle Dutch mond ("protection"), Latin manus ("hand"), Ancient Greek μάρη (márē, "hand").

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Examples

  • This page unsportingly suggests that the mound is a 13th-century motte which had nothing to do with Pepin, but I'll take my romance where I can find it, thanks.

    Dental development nwhyte 2010

  • Manuel said he didn't use his best pinch-hitter, lefty Greg Dobbs, because Feliz "is a down hitter, and the guy on the mound is a sinkerball pitcher."

    Phillies win chess match in resumption of Game 5 2008

  • "When you get ripped by your manager like we did, the best guy you can have on the mound is a dominating lefthander and he stepped up for us today," Flaherty said.

    USATODAY.com 2005

  • The average brush turkey mound is 4 meters in diameter and a meter high; it comprises between 2 and 4 tons of material; and it takes up to six weeks to build.

    Archive 2007-01-01 2007

  • Rays designated hitter Jonny Gomes charged the mound from the dugout, jumped on Navarro and Crisp, and threw several punches that hit Crisp while he was on the ground.

    USATODAY.com 2007

  • BARTON: Today we voted to add the word mound to a national Indian monument in Georgia.

    CNN Transcript Dec 9, 2009 2009

  • Carl Lumholtz describes three yácatas which he saw in the Sierra de los Tarascos: The mound is built of stones, without mortar, in the shape of a 'T, 'each arm about 50 feet long and thirty-two feet high.

    The Tarasco culture and empire 2006

  • Carl Lumholtz describes three yácatas which he saw in the Sierra de los Tarascos: The mound is built of stones, without mortar, in the shape of a 'T, 'each arm about 50 feet long and thirty-two feet high.

    The Tarasco culture and empire 2006

  • "My thought process on the mound is that I can't control anything that goes on except what I do, and that's make pitches," Carpenter said.

    USATODAY.com 2004

  • Because the softball mound is so much closer to home plate than in the major leagues, Finch's pitches seem like they're whizzing by at 98 mph to baseball big-leaguers.

    USATODAY.com - Softball's Jennie Finch ready to make her pitch 2004

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