See also: Moorish and moreish

English edit

Etymology edit

From moor +‎ -ish.

Pronunciation edit

Adjective edit

moorish (comparative more moorish, superlative most moorish)

  1. (now rare) Of ground, soil etc: boggy, marshy. [from 15th c.]
    • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. [] The First Part [], 2nd edition, part 1, London: [] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, [], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act IIII, scene ii:
      Make heauen to frowne and euery fixed ſtarre
      To ſucke vp poiſon from the Mooriſh Fens,
      And poure it in this glorious Tyrants throat.
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: [], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
      , I.iii.3:
      [G]low-worms, fire-drakes, meteors, ignis fatuus [] with many such that appear in moorish grounds, about churchyards, moist valleys, or where battles have been fought [] .
  2. Resembling or characteristic of a moor; abounding in moorland. [from 16th c.]
    • 1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Oxford, published 2008, page 880:
      He recommended to me to plant a considerable part of a large moorish farm which I had purchased, and he made several calculations of the expence and profit: for he delighted in exercising his mind on the science of numbers.
    • 1899, John Buchan, No Man's Land:
      The Lent term had pulled me down, a week of modest enjoyment thereafter in town had finished the work; and I drank in the sharp moorish air like a thirsty man who has been forwandered among deserts.

Synonyms edit