mothballed

1. 1
   verb

   Past tense and past participle of mothball.

   The navy mothballed a dozen destroyers after the war ended.

   Plans for a second runway were mothballed when the airline went bankrupt.

   Note

   The image is the mothball itself, the naphthalene ball tucked among stored clothes to keep moth larvae off: what is mothballed is put away with care, not thrown out. The form is a regular -ed past, often met in the passive (the plant was mothballed), and it promises a possible return in a way that scrapped does not. Before a noun it becomes the adjective for idle equipment.

2. 2
   adjective

   Of something no longer in use: kept in good condition in case it is needed again.

   Engineers are surveying the mothballed power plant to see whether it could restart within a year.

   A row of mothballed warships waited in the bay under protective coatings.

   Similaridle, inactive

   Oppositeoperational, active

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