Dictionary

moorish en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈmɔːɹɪʃ/ (UK)

Etymology

From moor + -ish.

Meanings

1. (archaic) Of ground, soil etc: boggy, marshy.
   • [G]low-worms, fire-drakes, meteors, ignis fatuus […] with many such that appear in moorish grounds, about churchyards, moist valleys, or where battles have been fought […] . , I.iii.3
   • Make heauen to frowne and euery fixed ſtarre To ſucke vp poiſon from the Mooriſh Fens, And poure it in this glorious Tyrants throat. c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act IIII, scene ii:
2. Resembling or characteristic of a moor; abounding in moorland.
   • The Lent term had pulled me down, a week of modest enjoyment thereafter in town had finished the work; and I drank in the sharp moorish air like a thirsty man who has been forwandered among deserts. 1899, John Buchan, No Man's Land:
   • He recommended to me to plant a considerable part of a large moorish farm which I had purchased, and he made several calculations of the expence and profit: for he delighted in exercising his mind on the science of numbers. 1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Oxford, published 2008, page 880:

Forms

Deriveds

moorishly

Synonyms

quaggy · swampy · moory