MOTE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Mote

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noun

Moot n. (Written also mote)

A meeting for discussion and deliberation; esp., a meeting of the people of a village or district, in Anglo-Saxon times, for the discussion and settlement of matters of common interest; usually in composition; as, folk-moot.

A discussion or debate; especially, a discussion of fictitious causes by way of practice. "The pleading used in courts and chancery called moots."

Moot case, a case or question to be mooted; a disputable case; an unsettled question.

Moot court, a mock court, such as is held by students of law for practicing the conduct of law cases.

Moot point, a point or question to be debated; a doubtful question.

to make moot v. t. to render moot (2); to moot (3).

Mote n. (Obs., except in a few combinations or phrases.)

A meeting of persons for discussion; as, a wardmote in the city of London.

A body of persons who meet for discussion, esp. about the management of affairs; as, a folkmote.

A place of meeting for discussion.

Mote bell, the bell rung to summon to a mote. (Obs.)

Mote n. The flourish sounded on a horn by a huntsman. See Mot, n., 3, and Mort.

Mote n. A small particle, as of floating dust; anything proverbially small; a speck. "The little motes in the sun do ever stir, though there be no wind." "We are motes in the midst of generations."

verb

Mot v. (sing. pres. ind. mot, mote, moot, pl. mot, mote, moote; pres. subj. mote; past moste) (Obs.) May; must; might. "He moot as well say one word as another" "The wordes mote be cousin to the deed." "Men moot (i.e., one only) give silver to the poore freres."

So mote it be, so be it; amen; a phrase in some rituals, as that of the Freemasons.

Mote v. See 1st Mot. (Obs.)

See images of 'Mote'

Etymology of 'Mote'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Mote" Quotes from Famous Books

... we know:—yon ring of spectral light, Whose distance thrills the soul with solemn awe, Can ne'er escape in its majestic might The firm control of omnipresent law; This mote descending to its bounden place, Those suns whose radiance we can scarcely trace, Alike ...

— Poems • John L. Stoddard

... and laughed. Pierre had tried to keep her a good deal to himself, but she had been elusive as a golden mote dancing up and down. She seemed to understand what this sense of appropriating meant, and she ...

— A Little Girl in Old Detroit • Amanda Minnie Douglas

... pleasure. It is a peremptory rule with them, that they never go out of their road. We are dapper little busybodies, and run this way and that way superserviceably; but they swerve never from their fore-ordained paths,—neither the sun, nor the moon, nor a bubble of air, nor a mote ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 54, April, 1862 • Various

... electric-lights shining through cut-glass and the air was like a razor-blade wrapped in panne-velvet. It took you out of yourself. It reminded you that you were only an infinitely small atom in the immensity of a crowded big world, and that even your big world was merely a microscopic little mote lost amid its uncounted millions of sister-motes in the infinitudes ...

— The Prairie Mother • Arthur Stringer

... we dropped anchor in Keppel Bay, but had to wait for the tide to rise. We landed in the course of the morning in the 'Gleam,' the 'Flash,' and the 'Mote,' and made quite a large party, with dogs, monkey, and photographic apparatus. We found a convenient little landing-place, and looked over the telegraph station and post-office, which are mainly managed by the wife of the signalman, ...

— The Last Voyage - to India and Australia, in the 'Sunbeam' • Lady (Annie Allnutt) Brassey

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