n. [ Native name. ] (Zool.) Any one of several very large extinct species of wingless birds belonging to Dinornis, and other related genera, of the suborder Dinornithes, found in New Zealand. They are allied to the apteryx and the ostrich. They were probably exterminated by the natives before New Zealand was discovered by Europeans. Some species were much larger than the ostrich. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One of the posterity of Moab, the son of Lot. (Gen. xix. 37.) Also used adjectively. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A female Moabite. Ruth i. 22. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Archaeol.) A block of black basalt, found at Dibon in Moab by Rev. F. A. Klein, Aug. 19, 1868, which bears an inscription of thirty-four lines, dating from the 9th century b. c., and written in the Moabite alphabet, the oldest Phoenician type of the Semitic alphabet. It records the victories of Mesha, king of Moab, esp. those over Israel (2 Kings iii. 4, 5, 27). [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. Moabite. Ruth ii. 6. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To bewail audibly; to lament. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ye floods, ye woods, ye echoes, moan
My dear Columbo, dead and gone. Prior. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To afflict; to distress. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Which infinitely moans me. Beau. & Fl. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Moaned p. pr. & vb. n. Moaning. ] [ AS. m&aemacr_;nan to moan, also, to mean; but in the latter sense perh. a different word. Cf. Mean to intend. ] 1. To make a low prolonged sound of grief or pain, whether articulate or not; to groan softly and continuously. [ 1913 Webster ]

Unpitied and unheard, where misery moans. Thomson. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let there bechance him pitiful mischances,
To make him moan. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To emit a sound like moan; -- said of things inanimate; as, the wind moans. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. mone. See Moan, v. i. ] 1. A low prolonged sound, articulate or not, indicative of pain or of grief; a low groan. [ 1913 Webster ]

Sullen moans, hollow groans. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A low mournful or murmuring sound; -- of things. [ 1913 Webster ]

Rippling waters made a pleasant moan. Byron. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Full of moaning; expressing sorrow. -- Moan"ful*ly, adv. [1913 Webster]

n. [ OF. mote hill, dike, bank, F. motte clod, turf: cf. Sp. & Pg. mota bank or mound of earth, It. motta clod, LL. mota, motta, a hill on which a fort is built, an eminence, a dike, Prov. G. mott bog earth heaped up; or perh. F. motte, and OF. mote, are from a LL. p. p. of L. movere to move (see Move). The name of moat, properly meaning, bank or mound, was transferred to the ditch adjoining: cf. F. dike and ditch. ] (Fort.) A deep trench around the rampart of a castle or other fortified place, sometimes filled with water; a ditch. [ 1913 Webster ]