as in ditch
a deep, wide excavation that is usually filled with water and that goes around the walls of a place (such as a castle) to protect it from being attacked
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Recent Examples of moat
Château de Beloeil, on the other hand, is an 800-year-old castle completely surrounded by a moat.
—
Opheli Garcia Lawler, Travel + Leisure, 15 Aug. 2025
The second was to build what amounts to a nonflammable moat around a home to prevent embers from alighting on anything next to a house that could burn and ignite the structure.
—Bloomberg, Mercury News, 12 Aug. 2025
The no-miss moat ensures that batter doesn’t fall out from the sides of the waffle maker.
—Bestreviews, Chicago Tribune, 12 Aug. 2025
And Charon has a strange ice mountain submerged in a frozen moat — a unique feature among icy peaks.
—Nola Taylor Tillman, Space.com, 12 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for moat
Opheli Garcia Lawler, Travel + Leisure, 15 Aug. 2025
The second was to build what amounts to a nonflammable moat around a home to prevent embers from alighting on anything next to a house that could burn and ignite the structure.
—Bloomberg, Mercury News, 12 Aug. 2025
The no-miss moat ensures that batter doesn’t fall out from the sides of the waffle maker.
—Bestreviews, Chicago Tribune, 12 Aug. 2025
And Charon has a strange ice mountain submerged in a frozen moat — a unique feature among icy peaks.
—Nola Taylor Tillman, Space.com, 12 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for moat
Recent Examples of Synonyms for moat
Noun
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Some have been added based on what Gravelle experienced during challenging off-roading trips, such as the ditch lights, washout flooring and full skid plates underneath that followed a trip to Drummond Island.—
Eric D. Lawrence,
Freep.com,
26 Aug. 2025
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The district remains a throwback to the old days, much like the ancient thistle districts and thistle commissioners who were once found across Lake County in an attempt to stomp out the noxious weeds from farmlands and roadside ditches.—
Charles Selle,
Chicago Tribune,
25 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Improvising an armed version to clear Russian trenches should not be an impossible technical challenge, given how easily troops in the field have attached sawn-off shotguns to drones.—
David Hambling,
Forbes.com,
2 Sep. 2025
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In another photo, the Pomellato woman sits in a bar wearing a patent leather trench, a beret, a stack of bracelets on one arm, glancing down at her companion — an English bulldog.—
Luisa Zargani,
Footwear News,
28 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Park staff partially opened the valve in July after heavy rain caused water levels to overflow the dike, raising erosion concerns.—
Mary Divine,
Twin Cities,
14 Aug. 2025
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By taking down part of the old dike and building a new one farther back, the project has given the river some breathing room, expanding the floodplain.—
Christopher Elliott,
Forbes.com,
11 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Bates' car swerved off the freeway and came to a rest in a culvert, police said.—
Bill Hutchinson,
ABC News,
2 Sep. 2025
-
Officials told the outlets that a water main broke near to where the child had been playing, beside a culvert.—
Gabrielle Rockson,
People.com,
26 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Naked Gun showed that there remains a ceiling with broad comedies in the streaming era, specifically titles that aren’t hybrid (hybrid meaning a movie like Deadpool & Wolverine which is half superhero, half ha-ha).—
Anthony D'Alessandro,
Deadline,
1 Sep. 2025
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He’s also involved in some dodgy side hustles, which leads to a lot of peripheral gunplay and tangential, ha-ha–bang-bang set pieces that feel cherry-picked from Coen’s back catalog.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
20 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
If no alternative exists, set up camp in a valley, ravine, or other low-lying areas.—
Bay Area Weather Report,
Mercury News,
27 Aug. 2025
-
Here, visitors will find dramatic cliff views, wooded ravines, and miles of hiking trails that wind through oak and hickory forests.—
Karthika Gupta,
Travel + Leisure,
23 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Bolster or reattach sagging gutters, tighten up screws, and seal any cracks or leaks with gutter sealant.—
Brandee Gruener,
Southern Living,
1 Sep. 2025
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Remove standing water from your flowerpots, gutters, pool covers, pet dishes, or birdbaths.—
Sherri Gordon,
Health,
28 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Moat.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/moat. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
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