moths

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of moth.

   Dozens of moths gathered against the screen, drawn to the warm glow inside.

   The wool sweaters were ruined by moths over the long, damp winter.

   Note

   A regular plural, and it covers every countable meaning of moth, not only the insects. Moths can also be the silent consumers of the figurative sense, things that slowly waste whatever they feed on. They can be individual moth bean plants, or, in Irish slang, girlfriends. The bean plant is also used uncountably, as a crop, and then takes no plural. The same spelling serves as the verb for hunting moths.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of moth.

   The naturalist moths beside the riverbank each evening, noting every species that lands on his sheet.

   Whenever the nights turn mild, my neighbor moths until well past midnight.

   Note

   The present-tense form of a hobbyist's verb, to hunt for moths, and it takes no object. A naturalist moths along a riverbank but never moths the riverbank. Place and time go in a prepositional phrase or adverb instead. Because the spelling matches the plural noun, the word is read as a verb only when it follows a singular subject in the verb slot.

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