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May; must; might. He moot as well say one word as another Chaucer. The wordes mote be cousin to the deed. Chaucer. Men moot [i.e., one only] give silver to the poore freres. Chaucer. So mote it be, so be it; amen; -- a phrase in some rituals, as that of the Freemasons.

Any singing bird of the genus Motacilla; a wagtail.

The act of moving; motion. [Obs.]

See 1st Mot. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Filled with motes, or fine floating dust; as, the air. "Moted sunbeams." Tennyson.

A composition adapted to sacred words in the elaborate polyphonic church style; an anthem.

A mote. [Obs.] Shak.

To eat or prey upon, as a moth eats a garment. [Rarely used except in the form moth-eaten, p.p. or a.] Ruin and neglect have so moth-eaten her. Sir T. Herbert.

Full of moths. [Obs.] Fulke.

; source of birth or origin; generatrix. Alas! poor country! ... it can not Be called our mother, but our grave. Shak. I behold ... the solitary majesty of Crete, mother of a religion, it is said, that lived two thousand years. Landor.

A day appointed for the honor and uplift of motherhood by the loving remembrance of each person of his mother through the performance of some act of kindness, visit, tribute, or letter. The founder of the day is Anna Jarvis, of Philadelphia, who designated the second Sunday in May, or for schools the second Friday, as…

The mother of one's husband or wife.

Naked as when born.

The hard pearly internal layer of several kinds of shells, esp. of pearl oysters, river mussels, and the abalone shells; nacre. See Pearl.

An aromatic plant (Thymus Serphyllum); -- called also wild thyme.

Thick, like mother; viscid. They oint their naked limbs with mothered oil. Dryden.

The state of being a mother; the character or office of a mother.

isiting one's parents on Midlent Sunday, -- supposed to have been originally visiting the mother church to make offerings at the high altar.

The country of one's ancestors; -- same as fatherland.

Destitute of a mother; having lost a mother; as, motherless children.