| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| mothball |
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| SYLLABICATION: | moth·ball |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  môth bôl , m th- |
| NOUN: | 1. A marble-sized ball, originally of camphor but now of naphthalene, stored with clothes to repel moths. 2. mothballs a. A condition of long storage for possible future use: put the battleship into mothballs. b. A condition of being set aside or discarded: have put the plan into mothballs. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: moth·balled, moth·ball·ing, moth·balls
1. To remove (a ship, for example) from active service or use and put into protective storage. 2. To defer indefinitely; shelve: mothball a project.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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