mothballn.adj.

Brit.

/ˈmɒθbɔːl/, U.S.

/ˈmɔθˌbɔl/,

/ˈmɑθˌbɑl/

Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: moth n.¹, ball n.¹

Etymology: < moth n.¹ + ball n.¹

Originally U.S.

A. n.

a. A small pellet of a pungent substance (originally camphor, now typically naphthalene) placed among stored clothes, etc., to keep away moths.In quot. 1906 in figurative context; cf. sense A. 2.

ΘΚΠ

the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > pest control > [noun] > substances for repelling moths

mothball1892

moth-repellent1937

1892 Manufacturer & Builder Dec. 286/1 Two or three moth balls, or one dram of camphor.

1906 ‘O. Henry’ in Munsey's Mag. Dec. 288/1 Me and Solly..prepared to shake off our moth-balls and wing our way against the arc-lights of the joyous and tuneful East.

1911 G. Stratton-Porter Harvester xiii. 282 Wouldn't she like me to wear her things better than to have them lying in moth balls?

1914 S. Lewis Our Mr. Wrenn xvi. 214 An odor of the best cologne and moth-balls.

1951 L. P. Hartley My Fellow Devils xi. 100 An old suit of tussore silk which had not seen the light for many years and smelt of moth-balls.

1987 R. Ingalls End of Trag. 88 A powerful odour of mothballs was released into the room.

2000 R. McFarland Stranger in Town i. 34 I once knew a boy who swallowed two mothballs, about as much naphthalene as anyone would care to eat in a lifetime.

b. Australian Military slang. A tracer bullet. rare.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > missile > ammunition for firearms > [noun] > bullet or shell > type of

tracer1910

mothball1943

1943 S. J. Baker Pop. Dict. Austral. Slang (ed. 3) 51 Moth balls, tracer bullets.

c. U.S. slang. A ball of ether used to start a cold diesel engine.

ΚΠ

1971 M. Tak Truck Talk 109 Moth~balls, balls of ether used by truckers to start cold diesel engines.

2. figurative. in mothballs: in a (usually prolonged) state or period of inactivity, disuse, reserve, storage, or postponement; (Military) in a prolonged state of removal from active service. Also out of mothballs: returned to use or service.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > military equipment > store of weapons or equipment > [adverb]

in mothballs1916

the mind > possession > supply > storage > in store [phrase] > as redundant

in mothballs1916

1904 Amer. Physician June 166/1 Beckwith did not envelope himself in mothballs and camphor-cloths nor lay himself on the shelf of oblivion in the bright little speech he made.]

1916 R. Lardner in Sat. Evening Post 19 Feb. 36 They put him in moth balls and they ask Joss to join their tong.

1946 Pop. Mech. Mar. 126/1 (heading) Ships in moth balls.

1948 Sun (Baltimore) 16 Jan. 1/1 The 45,000-ton New Jersey and Wisconsin had been put in ‘moth~balls’ January 1.

1967 Boston Sunday Herald 30 Apr. 1. 7/1 A..port improvement paid for by the MPA has remained in mothballs.., because no container ships have been scheduled to or from Boston.

1974 Guardian 31 Jan. 1/5 The distinguished BBC cheerfully took the most improbable creations [sc. films] out of mothballs.

1991 P. J. O'Rourke Parl. of Whores (1992) 173 Snell had to order the recoilless rifles out of mothballs five weeks before Operation Just Cause, and only a few old lifer sergeants knew how to use them.

1998 Bloomington (Indiana) Herald-Times 10 Dec. a7/1 Most states have left the statutes in mothballs.

3. U.S. slang. An insignificant or foolish person; a ‘nerd’; spec. an over-diligent student, a ‘swot’. Now rare.

ΘΚΠ

society > education > learning > learner > [noun] > diligent pupil or student

muzz1788

sap1798

sapper1825

swot1850

mug1880

mugger1883

mugster1888

groise1913

swotter1919

swotty1929

brain-box1942

mothball1944

geek1957

achiever1960

tug1976

poindexter1981

dexter1985

1944 Slanguage Dict. 60 Mothball, a teenage jerk.

1945 L. Shelly Hepcats Jive Talk Dict. 29 Moth ball, an aggravating person.

1960 H. Wentworth & S. B. Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 345/2 Mothball, a serious student; a grind; a student who never dates a girl.

B. adj. (attributive).

Navy. Designating or relating to a vessel, installation, etc.: held in reserve, out of service. Originally and chiefly in mothball fleet.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > military equipment > store of weapons or equipment > [adjective]

mothball1946

mothballed1950

1946 Amer. Notes & Queries Apr. 7/2 ‘Mothball fleet’: inactive U.S. Navy ships to be preserved for long periods by newly-developed techniques.

1947 N.Y. Times 26 Jan. E. 6/5 The moth ball fleet consists of United States warships now undergoing preservative treatment which will enable them to be put back in use rapidly if needed.

1950 Hansard Commons 22 Mar. 2079 We have a ‘moth-ball fleet’, as it is somewhat vulgarly termed in some countries, reasonably widely dispersed..round the United Kingdom.

1990 Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) 19 Jan. 3/1 If the mothball plan is carried out, the Navy would retain the USS Wisconsin in the Atlantic Fleet and the USS Missouri in the Pacific.

1996 S. Deane Reading in Dark (1997) v. 204 They were stripping down one of the battleships from the mothball fleet that was left over from the war.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

mothballv.

Brit.

/ˈmɒθbɔːl/, U.S.

/ˈmɔθˌbɔl/,

/ˈmɑθˌbɑl/

Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: mothball n.

Etymology: < mothball n.

1. transitive. figurative. To put ‘in mothballs’ (mothball n. 2); esp. to take (military hardware, a building, etc.) out of use or active service; to set aside or postpone consideration of (a plan or project) for an indefinite time. Usually in passive.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > military equipment > store of weapons or equipment > store equipment [verb (transitive)]

mothball1926

the mind > possession > supply > storage > store [verb (transitive)] > carefully or as redundant

to lay (up) in lavender1584

mothball1926

1926 Lincoln (Nebraska) Star 31 Jan. 6/7 The duels that were put on in Washington and Pittsburgh long since have been nicely mothballed and stored away in the history chests.

1949 Jane's Fighting Ships 1949–50 357 Princeton, Tarawa and Antietam are also being ‘mothballed’.

1957 P. Frank Seven Days to Never ii. 80 We've got two thousand Fifty-Twos and Forty-Sevens mothballed, lined up on every desert in Arizona.

1966 Aviation Week & Space Technol. 5 Dec. 22/3 The separately orbited satellite modules could be mothballed in space..until ready for use.

1978 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 23 Aug. 7/2 The costly heavy water plant in Quebec is to be mothballed.

1990 Flight Internat. 25 July 3/3 Machinery can be mothballed alongside the design and prototypes, but bank loans cannot be.

1995 Daily News (Virgin Islands) 13 Feb. 7/3 Castro won't be mothballing his famed fatigues entirely, though.

1997 Sierra Apr. 24/1 While 130 submarines have already been mothballed, Russia lacks the funds to defuel the submarine's reactors and store the wastes.

2. transitive. To put (clothes) into storage among or in mothballs.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > possession > supply > storage > store [verb (transitive)] > carefully or as redundant > clothes in mothballs

mothball1943

1943 R. Malkin Marriage, Morals & War xi. 159 His civvies, all dusted off, were mothballed, and shipped back home.

1996 S. Gould Wildside 33 Mom mothballed his stuff to the attic a couple of years ago.

Derivatives

ˈmothballed adj.

ΘΚΠ

society > armed hostility > military equipment > store of weapons or equipment > [adjective]

mothball1946

mothballed1950

the mind > possession > supply > storage > [adjective] > stored > stored as being redundant

mothballed1950

1950 Time 9 Oct. 20 He would be able to revive some reluctantly mothballed plans for windmilling personally into the 1950 congressional elections.

2000 Nation 18 Sept. 22/1 The cash-strapped military has abandoned some 110 additional mothballed nuclear submarines.

ˈmothballing n.

ΚΠ

1949 N.Y. Times 31 Oct. 1 A fleet that comprised 268 combat vessels, when the ‘mothballing’ began in September.

1984 Chicago Sun-Times 2 Sept. 1 The mothballing of Commonwealth Edison Co's..nuclear reactor will cost the utility $71.5 million.

2001 Scotsman 9 Jan. (Business) 2/6 The area's involvement in the offshore industry has been overshadowed by the mothballing of fabrication yards.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

单词	mothball
释义	mothballn.adj. Brit. /ˈmɒθbɔːl/, U.S. /ˈmɔθˌbɔl/, /ˈmɑθˌbɑl/ Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: moth n.¹, ball n.¹ Etymology: < moth n.¹ + ball n.¹ Originally U.S. A. n. 1. a. A small pellet of a pungent substance (originally camphor, now typically naphthalene) placed among stored clothes, etc., to keep away moths.In quot. 1906 in figurative context; cf. sense A. 2. ΘΚΠ the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > pest control > [noun] > substances for repelling moths mothball1892 moth-repellent1937 1892 Manufacturer & Builder Dec. 286/1 Two or three moth balls, or one dram of camphor. 1906 ‘O. Henry’ in Munsey's Mag. Dec. 288/1 Me and Solly..prepared to shake off our moth-balls and wing our way against the arc-lights of the joyous and tuneful East. 1911 G. Stratton-Porter Harvester xiii. 282 Wouldn't she like me to wear her things better than to have them lying in moth balls? 1914 S. Lewis Our Mr. Wrenn xvi. 214 An odor of the best cologne and moth-balls. 1951 L. P. Hartley My Fellow Devils xi. 100 An old suit of tussore silk which had not seen the light for many years and smelt of moth-balls. 1987 R. Ingalls End of Trag. 88 A powerful odour of mothballs was released into the room. 2000 R. McFarland Stranger in Town i. 34 I once knew a boy who swallowed two mothballs, about as much naphthalene as anyone would care to eat in a lifetime. b. Australian Military slang. A tracer bullet. rare. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > missile > ammunition for firearms > [noun] > bullet or shell > type of tracer1910 mothball1943 1943 S. J. Baker Pop. Dict. Austral. Slang (ed. 3) 51 Moth balls, tracer bullets. c. U.S. slang. A ball of ether used to start a cold diesel engine. ΚΠ 1971 M. Tak Truck Talk 109 Moth~balls, balls of ether used by truckers to start cold diesel engines. 2. figurative. in mothballs: in a (usually prolonged) state or period of inactivity, disuse, reserve, storage, or postponement; (Military) in a prolonged state of removal from active service. Also out of mothballs: returned to use or service. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > military equipment > store of weapons or equipment > [adverb] in mothballs1916 the mind > possession > supply > storage > in store [phrase] > as redundant in mothballs1916 1904 Amer. Physician June 166/1 Beckwith did not envelope himself in mothballs and camphor-cloths nor lay himself on the shelf of oblivion in the bright little speech he made.] 1916 R. Lardner in Sat. Evening Post 19 Feb. 36 They put him in moth balls and they ask Joss to join their tong. 1946 Pop. Mech. Mar. 126/1 (heading) Ships in moth balls. 1948 Sun (Baltimore) 16 Jan. 1/1 The 45,000-ton New Jersey and Wisconsin had been put in ‘moth~balls’ January 1. 1967 Boston Sunday Herald 30 Apr. 1. 7/1 A..port improvement paid for by the MPA has remained in mothballs.., because no container ships have been scheduled to or from Boston. 1974 Guardian 31 Jan. 1/5 The distinguished BBC cheerfully took the most improbable creations [sc. films] out of mothballs. 1991 P. J. O'Rourke Parl. of Whores (1992) 173 Snell had to order the recoilless rifles out of mothballs five weeks before Operation Just Cause, and only a few old lifer sergeants knew how to use them. 1998 Bloomington (Indiana) Herald-Times 10 Dec. a7/1 Most states have left the statutes in mothballs. 3. U.S. slang. An insignificant or foolish person; a ‘nerd’; spec. an over-diligent student, a ‘swot’. Now rare. ΘΚΠ society > education > learning > learner > [noun] > diligent pupil or student muzz1788 sap1798 sapper1825 swot1850 mug1880 mugger1883 mugster1888 groise1913 swotter1919 swotty1929 brain-box1942 mothball1944 geek1957 achiever1960 tug1976 poindexter1981 dexter1985 1944 Slanguage Dict. 60 Mothball, a teenage jerk. 1945 L. Shelly Hepcats Jive Talk Dict. 29 Moth ball, an aggravating person. 1960 H. Wentworth & S. B. Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 345/2 Mothball, a serious student; a grind; a student who never dates a girl. B. adj. (attributive). Navy. Designating or relating to a vessel, installation, etc.: held in reserve, out of service. Originally and chiefly in mothball fleet. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > military equipment > store of weapons or equipment > [adjective] mothball1946 mothballed1950 1946 Amer. Notes & Queries Apr. 7/2 ‘Mothball fleet’: inactive U.S. Navy ships to be preserved for long periods by newly-developed techniques. 1947 N.Y. Times 26 Jan. E. 6/5 The moth ball fleet consists of United States warships now undergoing preservative treatment which will enable them to be put back in use rapidly if needed. 1950 Hansard Commons 22 Mar. 2079 We have a ‘moth-ball fleet’, as it is somewhat vulgarly termed in some countries, reasonably widely dispersed..round the United Kingdom. 1990 Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) 19 Jan. 3/1 If the mothball plan is carried out, the Navy would retain the USS Wisconsin in the Atlantic Fleet and the USS Missouri in the Pacific. 1996 S. Deane Reading in Dark (1997) v. 204 They were stripping down one of the battleships from the mothball fleet that was left over from the war. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online June 2022). mothballv. Brit. /ˈmɒθbɔːl/, U.S. /ˈmɔθˌbɔl/, /ˈmɑθˌbɑl/ Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: mothball n. Etymology: < mothball n. 1. transitive. figurative. To put ‘in mothballs’ (mothball n. 2); esp. to take (military hardware, a building, etc.) out of use or active service; to set aside or postpone consideration of (a plan or project) for an indefinite time. Usually in passive. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > military equipment > store of weapons or equipment > store equipment [verb (transitive)] mothball1926 the mind > possession > supply > storage > store [verb (transitive)] > carefully or as redundant to lay (up) in lavender1584 mothball1926 1926 Lincoln (Nebraska) Star 31 Jan. 6/7 The duels that were put on in Washington and Pittsburgh long since have been nicely mothballed and stored away in the history chests. 1949 Jane's Fighting Ships 1949–50 357 Princeton, Tarawa and Antietam are also being ‘mothballed’. 1957 P. Frank Seven Days to Never ii. 80 We've got two thousand Fifty-Twos and Forty-Sevens mothballed, lined up on every desert in Arizona. 1966 Aviation Week & Space Technol. 5 Dec. 22/3 The separately orbited satellite modules could be mothballed in space..until ready for use. 1978 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 23 Aug. 7/2 The costly heavy water plant in Quebec is to be mothballed. 1990 Flight Internat. 25 July 3/3 Machinery can be mothballed alongside the design and prototypes, but bank loans cannot be. 1995 Daily News (Virgin Islands) 13 Feb. 7/3 Castro won't be mothballing his famed fatigues entirely, though. 1997 Sierra Apr. 24/1 While 130 submarines have already been mothballed, Russia lacks the funds to defuel the submarine's reactors and store the wastes. 2. transitive. To put (clothes) into storage among or in mothballs. ΘΚΠ the mind > possession > supply > storage > store [verb (transitive)] > carefully or as redundant > clothes in mothballs mothball1943 1943 R. Malkin Marriage, Morals & War xi. 159 His civvies, all dusted off, were mothballed, and shipped back home. 1996 S. Gould Wildside 33 Mom mothballed his stuff to the attic a couple of years ago. Derivatives ˈmothballed adj. ΘΚΠ society > armed hostility > military equipment > store of weapons or equipment > [adjective] mothball1946 mothballed1950 the mind > possession > supply > storage > [adjective] > stored > stored as being redundant mothballed1950 1950 Time 9 Oct. 20 He would be able to revive some reluctantly mothballed plans for windmilling personally into the 1950 congressional elections. 2000 Nation 18 Sept. 22/1 The cash-strapped military has abandoned some 110 additional mothballed nuclear submarines. ˈmothballing n. ΚΠ 1949 N.Y. Times 31 Oct. 1 A fleet that comprised 268 combat vessels, when the ‘mothballing’ began in September. 1984 Chicago Sun-Times 2 Sept. 1 The mothballing of Commonwealth Edison Co's..nuclear reactor will cost the utility $71.5 million. 2001 Scotsman 9 Jan. (Business) 2/6 The area's involvement in the offshore industry has been overshadowed by the mothballing of fabrication yards. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022). < n.adj.1892v.1926
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