mossy

[ maw-see, mos-ee ]

adjective

, moss·i·er, moss·i·est.

1. overgrown with or abounding in moss:

   a mossy stone.

2. covered with a mosslike growth.
3. appearing as if covered with moss.
4. resembling moss:

   a mossy softness.

5. old or outdated; antiquated:

   mossy ideas.

Other Words From

• mossi·ness noun
• un·mossy adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of mossy¹

First recorded in 1540–50; moss + -y ¹

Example Sentences

I hadn’t, so she proceeded to slice open what resembled a mossy rock and serve it to me with a lemon squeeze.

From Washington Post

Now it’s back in Benjamin Moore’s Aegean Teal, a deep, muted blue-green-gray combination, the ocean’s equivalent of mossy Contemplative.

From Washington Blade

Yet less than 15 minutes into our foray, a slender orange mushroom in a mossy ditch caught my eye, and I called out to the group leader.

From Outside Online

Speaking sparingly, eyes fixed to the ground, they traced the mossy, wooded flank of a tributary to the Susquehanna River.

From Outside Online

Instead of forming a nice flat surface, the new metal takes on interesting shapes — mossy structures called dendrites.

From Science News For Students

I'm surrounded by mossy ruins that just barely retain the shape of a building.

From The Daily Beast

Then he turned to Evelyn's grave, and bending down, tried to read her name on the mossy stone.

From Project Gutenberg

It was nearing midnight, and the clouds being thick and low made the mossy ground very dark.

From Project Gutenberg

The mossy surface of the dunes is frozen hard as iron, and often the hailstones rush in furious blasts before the wind.

From Project Gutenberg

Gradually the cold began to tell upon him, and he started to his feet, plodding up the hill, through the soft mossy yielding soil.

From Project Gutenberg

Squire Wynne has now no land except that occupied by the Plas and its tangled and mossy and grassy and neglected gardens.

From Project Gutenberg