Moor Meaning
/mʊə/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAn extensive waste covered with patches of heath, and having a poor, light (and usually acidic) soil, but sometimes marshy, and abounding in peat; a heath. (Compare bog, peatland, marsh, swamp, fen.)
nounA game preserve consisting of moorland.
Sentence Examples
Moor the ship at the pier.
Were you in the moor yesterday?
A long, low moan, indescribably sad, swept over the moor.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The sheep grazed on the open ____ under the cloudy gray sky all afternoon.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The sailors had to ____ the small wooden boat securely to the dock before the strong storm arrived in the middle of the night.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English mor, from Old English mōr, from Proto-West Germanic *mōr, from Proto-Germanic *mōraz, from Proto-Indo-European *móri. Cognates include Welsh môr, Old Irish muir (from Proto-Celtic *mori); Scots muir, Dutch moer, Old Saxon mōr, Old Saxon mūr, German Moor and perhaps also Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌴𐌹 (marei). See mere.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"the ruins yet resting in the wild moors"
— 1609, Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall, London: […] S[imon] S[tafford] for Iohn Iaggard, […], →OCLC:
"And now, without a word of warning from the Ghost, they stood upon a bleak and desert moor, where monstrous masses of rude stone were cast about, as though it were the burial-place of giants; and water spread itself wheresoever it listed, or would have done so, but for the frost that held it prisoner; and nothing grew but moss and furze, and coarse rank grass."
— 1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, →OCLC, pages 101-102:
"His thought is tied, the curving prow
Of motion moored to rock;
And minutes burst upon a brow
Insentient to shock."
— 1941, Theodore Roethke, “Death Piece”, in Open House, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, London: Faber and Faber […], 1968, →OCLC, page 4:
"[King of] Moro[cco]. Ye Moores and valiant men of Barbary,
How can ye ſuffer theſe indignities?"
— c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The sheep grazed on the open ____ under the cloudy gray sky all afternoon.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The sailors had to ____ the small wooden boat securely to the dock before the strong storm arrived in the middle of the night.