5 entries under this word
n. [A-S. mål, mæl. See MOIL and MAIL.] A spot, mark, or small permanent protuberance on the human body, from which often issue one or more hairs.
To nourish hair upon the moles of the face, is the perpetuation of a very ancient custom. Browne.
n. [Lat. mola.] A mass of fleshy matter generated in the uterus.
n. [Fr. mole, It. mole, molo, Sp. mole, muelle, Lat. moles.]
Sense 1. A mound or massive work formed of large stones laid in the sea, extended either in a right line or an arc of a circle before a port, which it serves to defend from the violence of the waves, thus protecting ships in a harbor; also, sometimes, the harbor itself. Brande.
Sense 2. (Rom. Antiq.) A kind of mausoleum, built like a round tower on a square base, insulated, encompassed with columns, and covered with a dome.
n. [D. mol, molworp. See MOLDWARP.]
Sense 1. (Zoöl.) A small, insect-eating mammal, with minute eyes and very soft fur, belonging to the genera Talpa, Scalops, &c. The common mole of Europe is the Talpa Europæa; that of North America is Scalops aquaticus; the star-nosed mole is the Condylura cristata. From its burrowing habits it is called a moldwarp, or mold-turner.
Learn of the mole to plow, the worm to weave. Pope.
☞ The name is also applied, in North America, to the shrew, a small burrowing animal of the genus Sorex.
Sense 2. A plow of peculiar construction, for forming underground drains. [U. S.]
v. t. [imp. & p. p. MOLED; p. pr. & vb. n. MOLING.]
Sense 1. To clear of mole-hills. [Prov. Eng.] Pegge.
Sense 2. To form holes in, as a mole; to burrow; to excavate; as, to mole the earth.