moat

[ moht ]

noun

1. a deep, wide trench, usually filled with water, surrounding the rampart of a fortified place, such as a town or a castle.
2. any trench, such as one used for confining animals in a zoo.
3. a competitive advantage a business has in its field:

   The company's moat was reduced when the patent on the devices they sold expired.

moat

/ məʊt /

noun

1. a wide water-filled ditch surrounding a fortified place, such as a castle

verb

1. tr to surround with or as if with a moat

   a moated grange

Word History and Origins

Origin of moat¹

First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English mote, from Old French: “clod, mound,” of obscure origin

Word History and Origins

Origin of moat¹

C14: from Old French motte mound

Example Sentences

According to local media, Hebei’s leaders have committed to defending the capital, pledging the province will act as a “political moat” around Beijing, protecting it from the viral spread.

From Fortune

For Hawaii, the Pacific Ocean has helped serve as the world’s biggest moat.

From Time

So if the prince’s castle has a moat, Cinderella might be able to make a grand entrance from a pumpkin after all.

From Science News For Students

With the rollout of the new campaign format, Snapchat is widening its moat against TikTok and other challengers for short-form video budgets.

From Digiday

Broadcast and cable are highly geographic but the franchise value becomes higher because of the regulatory moat.

From TechCrunch

But over the years, cloistered in their mountain keep, complete with moat, Bender and Patton became ever more reclusive.

From The Daily Beast

The brain is a castle and this is its moat, as experts have described it.

From The Daily Beast

Thinking to escape and summon assistance from the cantonment, Douglas mounted the wall and leaped into the moat.

From Project Gutenberg

The house itself was built nearly two hundred years earlier and was later surrounded by a moat as a further means of defense.

From Project Gutenberg

But the Scots tower proved useless, for its wheels stuck in the mud of the moat, and it could not be got up to the wall.

From Project Gutenberg

He'll immediately throw down his bunch of flowers and dive despairingly into the moat.

From Project Gutenberg

An ornamental lake indicates where once was the moat, but the outlines of the walls are shown only by grass-covered ridges.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• gully
• trench