moor

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /moː/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /moː/, [möː(ə̯)~mʊ̈ː(ə̯)]
• (Received Pronunciation)
  • (cure–force merger) IPA^(key): /mɔː/
  • (cure–force distinction) IPA^(key): /mʊə/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /mʉr/
• (US)
  • (cure–force merger) IPA^(key): /mɔɹ/
  • (cure–force distinction) IPA^(key): /mʊ(ə)ɹ/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊə(ɹ), -ɔː(ɹ)
• Homophones: Moore (all accents), more (cure–force merger), maw (most non-rhotic accents with cure–force merger), mooer (some accents)

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.

Saddleworth Moor in Greater Manchester

moor (plural moors)

1. An extensive waste covered with patches of heath, and having a poor, light soil, but sometimes marshy, and abounding in peat; a heath

   A cold, biting wind blew across the moor, and the travellers hastened their step.

   In her girlish age, she kept sheep on the moor.

   • 1609, Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall. […], new edition, London: […] B. Law, […]; Penzance, Cornwall: J. Hewett, published 1769, →OCLC:

     the ruins yet resting in the wild moors

   • 1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, →OCLC, pages 101-102:

     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.

2. A game preserve consisting of moorland.

• bog
• marsh
• swamp

From Middle English moren, from unattested Old English *mārian, from Proto-West Germanic *mairōn (“to moor, fasten to”), related to *maida- (“post”), from Proto-Indo-European *mēyt-, *meyt-, from *mēy-, *mey- (“stake, pole”). Cognate with Dutch meren (“to moor”), marren (“to bind”).

Some boats moored off Chicago

moor (third-person singular simple present moors, present participle mooring, simple past and past participle moored)

1. (intransitive, nautical) To cast anchor or become fastened.

   The vessel moored in the stream.

2. (transitive, nautical) To fix or secure (e.g. a vessel) in a particular place by casting anchor, or by fastening with ropes, cables or chains or the like.

   They moored the boat to the wharf.

   • 1941, Theodore Roethke, “Death Piece”, in Open House; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, 1975, →ISBN, page 4:

     His thought is tied, the curving prow
     Of motion moored to rock;
     And minutes burst upon a brow
     Insentient to shock.

3. (transitive) To secure or fix firmly.

• Kroonen, Guus (2013) “mairja-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN

• Moro, Romo, room

From Dutch moorden, from Middle Dutch morden.

• IPA^(key): /mʊə̯r/

moor (present moor, present participle moordende, past participle gemoor)

1. (intransitive) to murder

• moord

From Moor (“member of a North African people”, became synonymous with “Saracen”).

• IPA^(key): /moːr/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: moor
• Rhymes: -oːr

moor m (plural moren, diminutive moortje n)

1. Something black, notably a black horse
2. A whistling kettle, used to boil water in, as for tea or coffee

• (kettle): fluitketel

• moorkop

• Negerhollands: Moor

• room

• IPA^(key): /moːr/

moor (genitive moori, partitive moori)

1. (derogatory) an elderly woman; a crone

From Old Frisian māra, from Proto-West Germanic *maiʀō. Cognates include West Frisian mear and German mehr.

• IPA^(key): /moːr/
• Hyphenation: moor
• Rhymes: -oːr

moor

1. comparative degree of fúul; more

moor

1. comparative degree of fúul; more

• Marron C. Fort (2015) “moor”, in Saterfriesisches Wörterbuch mit einer phonologischen und grammatischen Übersicht, Buske, →ISBN