| / English Dictionary |
MOSS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Tiny leafy-stemmed flowerless plants
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("moss" is a kind of...):
bryophyte; nonvascular plant (any of numerous plants of the division Bryophyta)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "moss"):
acrocarp; acrocarpous moss (a moss in which the main axis is terminated by the archegonium (and hence the capsule))
pleurocarp; pleurocarpous moss (a moss having the archegonium or antheridium on a short side branch rather than the main stalk)
bog moss; peat moss; sphagnum; sphagnum moss (any of various pale or ashy mosses of the genus Sphagnum whose decomposed remains form peat)
Derivation:
mossy (overgrown with moss)
Context examples:
It belongs to the division Bryophyta, which includes liverwort, and moss.
(Non-Vascular Plant, NCI Thesaurus)
This term is to be used for the macro-algae, Embryophytes (mosses), and Tracheophytes (angiosperms, gymnosperms, etc.)
(Plant Genetics, NIH CRISP Thesaurus)
Most of the soil had been washed away or buried in drift after the removal of the trees; only where the streamlet ran down from the kettle a thick bed of moss and some ferns and little creeping bushes were still green among the sand.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Advancing in single file along the bank of the stream, we soon found that it narrowed down to a mere brook, and finally that it lost itself in a great green morass of sponge-like mosses, into which we sank up to our knees.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The first tablet said: In the wood, under the moss, lie the thousand pearls belonging to the king’s daughter; they must all be found: and if one be missing by set of sun, he who seeks them will be turned into marble.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
It exactly answers my idea of a fine country, because it unites beauty with utility—and I dare say it is a picturesque one too, because you admire it; I can easily believe it to be full of rocks and promontories, grey moss and brush wood, but these are all lost on me.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
He would thrust his nose into the cool wood moss, or into the black soil where long grasses grew, and snort with joy at the fat earth smells; or he would crouch for hours, as if in concealment, behind fungus-covered trunks of fallen trees, wide-eyed and wide-eared to all that moved and sounded about him.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
What happiness (I thought) if we were married, and were going away anywhere to live among the trees and in the fields, never growing older, never growing wiser, children ever, rambling hand in hand through sunshine and among flowery meadows, laying down our heads on moss at night, in a sweet sleep of purity and peace, and buried by the birds when we were dead!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Laurie dug a grave under the ferns in the grove, little Pip was laid in, with many tears by his tender-hearted mistress, and covered with moss, while a wreath of violets and chickweed was hung on the stone which bore his epitaph, composed by Jo while she struggled with the dinner.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
He came upon one of the man-animals, Grey Beaver, who was squatting on his hams and doing something with sticks and dry moss spread before him on the ground.
(White Fang, by Jack London)
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