mosquito-canopy 
or tester iiinl suspended over u l>e<l as ;i protec- 
tion against insects. 
mosquito-curtain (niiis-ke'to-ker''tan), . 
S;inir as nt08f]uito-net, 
mosquito-hawk (inus-k(Vt6-hiik), H. 1. A 
1 1 r;ti_'on-H y. The mime applies to any of these insect* 
in the I'nited States, from their preying upon mosquitos 
and other gnats. This habit is so well marked that 
Mosquito-hawk (Calopttryx apicatis), natural size. 
propositions have been made for the artificial propagation 
and protection of dragon-files as a means of relief from 
mosquitos in places where the latter are exceptionally 
numerous. 
2. The night-hawk, a caprimulgine bird, Chor- 
deiles popetue, or some other species of the same 
genus. 
mosquito-net (mus-ke'to-net), n. A screen or 
covering of plain lace, coarse gauze, or mos- 
quito-netting, used as a protection against 
mosquitos and other insects. 
mosquito-netting (mus-ke'to-net'ing), . A 
coarse fabric with large open meshes, used for 
mosquito-bars, etc. The most common kind Is a sort 
of gauze of which the warp has single-threaded strands 
and the weft strands of two loosely twisted threads hold- 
ing the thread of the warp between them. 
moss 1 (m6s), n. [(a) Early mod. E. also mosse; 
< ME. man, < AS. *mo.i (not found in this form) 
= MD. mos, also mosch, mosse, moss, mold, D. 
mos, moss, = MLG. mos = OHG. MHG. mos, Q. 
moos = Icel. mosi = Sw. mossa = Dan. mos, 
moss; akin to (6) E. dial, meat, < ME. *mese, < 
AS. me6s = OHG. mios, MHG. G. mies, moss 
(the two series of forms being related phoneti- 
cally like loss, n., and lese^, lerscl, .); akin to 
L. muscua (> It. Sp. mmeo = Pr. mossa = OF. 
mui:, mousse, P. mousse, the Pr. and F. forms 
prob. in part from OHG. ), moss ; cf . W. mwswg, 
micsmgl, mwswn, moss; OBulg. miihu = Bulg. 
muh = Serv. mah = Bohem. Pol. meclt = Buss. 
innl.ii u (>Hung. moh), moss. Cf. wss 2 .] i. A 
small herbaceous plant of the natural order 
Musci, with simple or branching stems and nu- 
Fertile Plant of the Moss BartiMta hrachyfhylla. 
a. the capsule with the operculutn and calyptra : t>, the - -.ipsult 
writh the operculuni ; c, transverse section of the leaf; rf. the apex of 
the leaf; t. part of the annulus ;/. part of the annulus and the peris- 
tome, with a few spores above : f . leaf, in the axil of which are to be 
seen the antheridia and paraphyses ; h, antheridimn and paraphysis. 
merous generally narrow leaves: usually ap- 
plied to a matted mass of such plants growing 
together ; also, in popular use, any small 
cryptogarnic plant, particularly a lichen: as, 
3860 
Iceland moss, club-wow*, rock-/<;.ss, coral-wow;, 
etc., and sometimes small matted phanero- 
gams, as I'ysiilii nlliini. 
Paul primus heremita had pamiked liym-seliie. 
That no man myghte se hyui fi>r inuche tnog and leues. 
fieri /Inw/umC'), xviii. in. 
And on the stone that still dotli turn about 
There groweth no motte. 
Wyatt, How to Use the Court, 
Mot* growetb chiefly upon ridges of houses, tiled or 
thatched, and upon the crests of walls. 
Boom, Nat. Hist, { 537. 
The short mow that on the trees is found. 
Drayian, Barons' Wars, ill. 
2. Money: in allusion to the proverb, "a roll- 
ing stone gathers no moss." [Slang.] Animal 
mosses, the moss-animalcules or Ilrito&xi. Black moBS, 
same as lony-maia. Bog-mOBB. See Sphagnum. Cana- 
ry-mOBB, a lichen, Parmelia perlata, used in dyeing. 
Cteylon moss, a seaweed, Gracillaria lichenoidet, of Cey- 
lon and the Indian archipelago, similar to Irish moss, 
and used in immense quantities by the inhabitants of 
those islands and the Chinese. Also called Jaffna moss 
and agar-ayar. Clubfoot moss. .Same as clvn-mott. 
Corsican moss, an esculent seaweed, Plocaria Helmin- 
thnchvrtftn. Cup-moss, a name of various species of 
lichens, particularly of the genera Lecanrtra and Cladoma. 
Feather-moss, a name sometimes given to some of the 
larger species of llypnmn. Florida moss. Sam e as long- 
I/IOM. Flowering moss, the Pyzidanthera barbulata, a 
prostrate and creeping evergreen plant of the pine- barrens 
of New Jersey, having small leaves and numerous white 
or rose-colored flowers. Fork-moss, a name sometimes 
applied to certain species of Dicranum. Golden mOBB. 
See Leskea. Hair-moss. Same as haircap-mott. Ice- 
land moss, a lichen, Cetraria Ittandica, so called from Its 
abundance In Iceland, where It Is used as a food and to 
some extent as a medicine. Before use it requires to be 
steeped for several hours to rid it of a bitter principle, 
after which it Is boiled to form a jelly, which is mixed with 
milk or wine, or it may be reduced to powder and used as 
an ingredient in cake and bread. In Germany it is used for 
dressing the warp of webs In the loom. It is also mixed 
with pulp for sizing paper in the vat. See Cetraria. Idle 
moss, a name of various pendulous tree-lichens, particu- 
larly Usnea barbata. Indian moss, a garden name for 
Sax^fraga hypnoides. Irian moss, a seaweed, Chondms 
crupiu. See carrageen Irish-moss ale, ale of which 
Irish moss or carrageen forms an ingredient. It U sup- 
posed to be potent In some diseases. Jaffna moss. Same 
as Ceylon mow. Long moss. See long-mots. New Or- 
leans moss. .Same asiong-mofts. Scale-moss. HeeJun- 
germanniacea. Spanish moss. Same as long-mots. 
Tree-moss, a name for various species of Lycvpodium, 
particularly L. dendroideum. Water-moss. See forth'- 
lutlii. (See also beard-mam, blade-mutt, reindeer-mots.) 
moss 1 (mds), e. [< ME. mossen, mosen ; < moss 1 , 
n.] I. trans. To cover with moss. 
Do clay uppon, and mom It alle abonte. 
PaUadiux, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 74. 
Under an oak whose boughs were most'd with age, 
And high top bald with dry antiquity. 
Shot., As you Like it, iv. 3. 105. 
Il.t intrant. To become mossy ; gather moss. 
Selden moseth the marbleston that men ofte treden. 
Piers Plowman (A), x. 101. 
Syldon massyth the stone 
That oftyn ys tornnyd & wende. 
Boot of Precedence (E. E. T. 8., extra ser.), I. 89. 
moss 2 (m6s), n. [< ME. moss, mos, < AS. mos 
(moss-), a swamp, = MD. mose, a swamp, bog, 
sink, kitchen-sink, = OHG. MHG. mos, G. moos 
= Icel. most = Sw. mosse, m&sse = Dan. mose, 
a swamp; akin to E. mire, < ME. mire, myre, 
< Icel. myrr, myri = Sw. myra = Dan. myre, 
myr = OHG. mios, MHG. G. mtes, a swamp (see 
>!); prob. orig. 'a place overgrown with 
moss,' derived from and partly confused with 
moss 1 .] A swamp or bog; specifically, a peat- 
bog or a tract of such bogs ; also, peat. 
Sone in a mom entryt are thai, 
That had wele twa myle lang of breld, 
Out our that mom on fnte thai yeid. 
Barbour, xix. 738. (Jamiaon.) 
We think na on the lang Scots miles, 
The moaet, waters, slaps, and stiles, 
That lie between us and our hame. 
Burnt, Tarn o' Shanter. 
It [the road] went over rough boulders, so that a man 
had to leap from one to another, and through soft bottoms 
whore the mats came nearly to the knee. 
R. L. Stevenson, Merry Men. 
moss :l t, . An erroneous form of morse 1 . 
The masses teeth, all kinds of Furrs, and wrought Iron 
do here sell to much profit. Sandys, Travailes, p. 67. 
moss-agate (m6s'ag'at), n. A kind of agate 
containing brown or black moss-like dendritic 
forms, due to the oxids of manganese or iron 
distributed through the mass. Also called 
dettdnichnte. 
moss-alcohol (mds'al'ko-hol), n. See alcohol, 1. 
moss-animal (mds'an'i-mal), n. A moss-ani- 
innlcule. 
moss-animalcule (m6s'an-i-mal'kul), . A 
bryozoan orpolyzoan: so called from the mossy 
appearance of some of them, especially the 
phylactolsematous polyzoaus, translating the 
moss-owl 
scientific name linji>::nii. Also 
//lf>*.S-fl>/Y//, rilftSK-pftllJll, Sci- /W//.IX/. 
mossback (mos'liak). n. 1. A large and old 
lisli, as a IHI-- : - called by anglers, in allusion 
to the growth of seaweed, etc., which may be 
found on its back. 2, In I . N. /w/i/iV.i, one 
attached to antiquated notion-: an extreme 
conservative. [Slang.] 3. In the southern 
United States, during the civil war, one who 
hid himself to avoid conscription. [Slang.] 
moss-bass (mds'bas), n. The large-mouthed 
black-bass, Micrnptrmx xtitumidi-x, a centrar- 
fhoid fiwh. [Indiana, U. 8.] 
mossberry (mds'ber'i), .; pi. mossberries (-iz). 
See cranberry, 1. 
moss-box (mds'boks), n. A kind of huge stuff- 
ing-box used in a method of sinking shafts in- 
vented by M. J. Chaudron, a Belgian engineer, 
for preventing water from entering at the bot- 
tom of the tubing. It consists of flanged rings ar- 
ranged to form an annular box, In which moss Is placed 
to fonn a packing and compressed by the weight of the su- 
perincumbent tubing, thus permanently stopping the In- 
flow of water from upper strata which would otherwise de- 
scend outside the tubing and enter the pit at the bottom. 
mossbunker (mds'bung-kcr), . [Also moss- 
bunker, mossbanker, massbanker, mart>hbunl:i r, 
marshbanker, morscbotiker, morsbunker, mouse- 
bunker, etc., and abbr. bunker, in earlier form 
marsbancker(\679), < D. marsbankei', the scad or 
horse-mackerel, Caranjr trachurwi, which an- 
nually visits the shores of northern Europe in 
immense schools, and swims at the surface iu 
much the same manner as the mossbunker 
this name being transferred by the Dutch of 
New York to the fish now so called (it occurs so 
applied, in the form masbank, in a Dutch poem 
byJacobSteedmanin 1661). The D.marsbanker 
(Gronovius, 1754) is not in the dictionaries. 
Its formation is not clear; appar. < mars, a 
peddler's pack (or i., a mass, crowd), + bank, 
bank, + -er (= E. -er 1 ) ; prob. in allusion to its 
appearance in schools.] The menhaden, Bre- 
voortia tyrannus. See cut under Breroortia. 
This bay [New York) swarms with flsh, both large and 
small, whales, tunnies, . . . and a sort of herring called 
the marsbanckers. 
Danken and SZwu/pr, Voyage to New York, 1679 (tr. In 1867 
(for Col!. Long Island Hist. Soc., I. 100). 
He saw the duyvel, In the shape of a huge mots-bunker, 
seize the sturdy Anthony by the leg, and drag him beneath 
the waves. Irving, Knickerbocker (ed. Grolier), II. 223. 
moss-campion (m6s'kam'pi-on), n. A dwarf 
tufted moss-like plant, with purple flowers, "S'i- 
lene acaulis. It is found In high northern latitudes, ex- 
tendiiig southward on the higher mountains. 
moss-capped (mos'kapt), a. Capped or covered 
with moss. 
moss-cheeper (mds'che'per), . The titlark. 
[Scotch.] 
In descending the Urioch hill, I found the nest of a tit- 
lark, or mom-cheeper. 
Fleming, Tour In Arran. (Jamieson.) 
moss-clad (moVklad), a. Clad or covered with 
moss. Lord Lyttelton. 
moss-coral (mds'kor'al), n. Same as moss-ani- 
malcule. 
moss-crops (moVkrops), n. The cotton-grass, 
a bog-loving plant. See cotton-grass and Erio- 
pnoruni. [Local, Scotch.] 
moss-duck (m&s'duk), . See duck'*. 
mossel (mos'el), n. An obsolete or dialectal 
form of morsel. 
moss-grown (moVgron), a. Overgrown with 
moss. 
Shakes the old beldam earth, and topples down 
Steeples and ntost-grovm towers. 
Shot., 1 Hen. IV., lit 1. 83. 
moss-hags (m6s'hagz), n. pi. Dead peat, dried 
up and more or less blown away, or washed 
away by the rain, so as to leave a curiously 
irregular surface, over which it is hardly pos- 
sible to walk with safety. [Scotch.] 
mosshead (mds'hed), n. The hooded mergan- 
ser, Lophodytes cvcullatus. [South Carolina.] 
The colored women often use a large bunch of "Florida 
moss," Tillandsia usneoides, as a cushion for the heavy 
loads they carry on their heads, and I am inclined to be- 
lieve that nonhead was suggested by this practice, ra- 
ther than by any direct resemblance to moss In the bird's 
crest. 0. TrumbuU, Bird Names (1888), p. 75. 
mossiness (m6s'i-nes), n. The state of being 
mossy, or overgrown with moss, 
moss-locust (nfds'ld'kust), n. See /Vwi/W-'. 
mosso (mos'so), a. [It., pp. of muovere, move: 
see mote.'} In music, rapid : as, j>i moivm, more 
rapid; meno mosso, less rapid, 
moss-owl (mds'oul), n. A dialectal form of 
mouse-owl. [Scotch.] 
