Word forms: plural, 3rd person singular presenttense moons, present participle mooning, past tense, past participle mooned
1. singular noun [oft full/newN]
Themoon is the object that you can often see in the sky at night. It goes round the Earth once every four weeks, and as it does so its appearance changes from a circle to part of a circle.
...the first man on the moon.
There will be no moon.
...the light of a full moon.
2. See also new moon
3. countable noun [usually poss NOUN]
A moon is an object similar to a small planet that travels around a planet.
...Neptune's large moon.
Synonyms: satellite More Synonyms of moon
4. verb [usually cont]
If you are mooningaround, you are spending time doing nothing in particular, for example because you feel unhappy or lazy, or are worried about something.
Lettie was mooning around all morning, doing nothing. [VERB adverb/preposition]
My working days were spent mooning round his department, trying to sneak a chanceencounter. [VERB adverb/preposition]
Synonyms: idle, drift, loaf, languish More Synonyms of moon
5. verb
If you moon at someone, you turn your back to them and show them your bare bottom.
[British, informal]
6.
See blue moon
7.
See over the moon
moon in British English
(muːn)
noun
1. (sometimes capital)
the natural satellite of the earth. Diameter: 3476 km; mass: 7.35 × 1022 kg; mean distance from earth: 384 400 km; periods of rotation and revolution: 27.32 days
▶ Related adjective: lunar
2.
the face of the moon as it is seen during its revolution around the earth, esp at one of its phases
new moon
full moon
3.
any natural satellite of a planet
4.
moonlight; moonshine
5.
something resembling a moon
6.
a month, esp a lunar one
7. once in a blue moon
8. over the moon
9. reach for the moon
verb
10. (whentr, often foll by away; when intr, often foll by around)
to be idle in a listless way, as if in love, or to idle (time) away
11. (intransitive) slang
to expose one's buttocks to passers-by
Derived forms
moonless (ˈmoonless)
adjective
Word origin
Old English mōna; compare Old Frisian mōna, Old High German māno
Moon in British English1
(muːn)
noun
a system of embossed alphabetical signs for blind readers, the fourteen basic characters of which can, by rotation, mimic most of the letters of the Roman alphabet, thereby making learning easier for those who learned to read before going blind
Compare Braille1
Moon in British English2
(muːn)
noun
William. 1818–94, British inventor of the Moon writing system in 1847, who, himself blind, taught blind children in Brighton and printed mainly religious works from stereotyped plates of his own designing
moon in American English
(mun)
noun
1. [oftenM-]
the celestial body that revolves around the earth from west to east in c. 271⁄3 days with reference to the stars and once in c. 291⁄2 days with reference to the sun, and that accompanies the earth in its yearly revolution about the sun: diameter, c. 3,476 km (c. 2,160 mi); mean distance from the earth, c. 384,404 km (c. 238,857 mi); mean density, c.3⁄5 that of the earth; mass, c.1⁄81; volume, c.1⁄49
, with the
2.
this body as it appears during a particular lunar month or period of time, or at a particular time of themonth
see also new moon, crescent, half-moon, full moon, old moon, first quarter, last quarter
3.
a month; esp., a lunar month
4.
moonlight
5.
anything shaped like the moon (i.e., an orb or crescent)
6.
any natural satellite; esp., a natural satellite of a planet
verb intransitive
7.
to behave in an idle, dreamy, or abstracted way, as when in love
8. Slang
to engage in the prank of momentarily baring one's buttocks in public
verb transitive
9.
to pass (time) in mooning
10. Slang
to expose one's buttocks to (someone) as a prank
Idioms:
once in a blue moon
Word origin
ME mone < OE mona, akin to Goth mēna < IE *mēn-, month, moon (> L mensis, Gr mēn, month, mēne, moon) < base mē-, to measure; (sense 8) from an earlier slang use of the noun, meaning “buttocks”