Moss-grown
adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Having a covering of growing moss.
"Diſeaſed nature oftentimes breakes forth, / In ſtrange eruptions, oft the teeming earth / Is with a kind of collicke pincht and vext, / By the impriſoning of vnruly wind / Within her vvombe, vvhich for enlargement ſtriuing / Shakes the old Beldame earth, and topples down / Steeples and moſſegrovvn towers."
- 2 Old; old-fashioned, out of date. figuratively
"To find one's self suddenly translated from the wild, flowery prairie into the heart of an aged, moss-grown village, of such foreign aspect, withal, was by no means easy to reconcile with one's notions of reality."
- 1 (used pejoratively) out of fashion; old fashioned wordnet
- 2 overgrown with moss wordnet
Example
More examples"But now the vault which had covered the fountain being broken down and riven, and the Gothic font ruined and demolished, the stream burst forth from the recess of the earth in open day, and winded its way among the broken sculpture and moss-grown stones which lay in confusion around its source."
Etymology
From moss + grown. Sense 2 (“old; old-fashioned, out of date”) refers to the fact that moss will often grow on an object that has remained outdoors in one place for some time.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.