[ noun ] ditch dug as a fortification and usually filled with water <noun.artifact>
Moat \Moat\, n. [OF. mote hill, dike, bank, F. motte clod, turf: cf. Sp. & Pg. mota bank or mound of earth, It. motta clod, LL. mota, motta, a hill on which a fort is built, an eminence, a dike, Prov. G. mott bog earth heaped up; or perh. F. motte, and OF. mote, are from a LL. p. p. of L. movere to move (see {Move}). The name of moat, properly meaning, bank or mound, was transferred to the ditch adjoining: cf. F. dike and ditch.] (Fort.) A deep trench around the rampart of a castle or other fortified place, sometimes filled with water; a ditch.
Moat \Moat\, v. t. To surround with a moat. --Dryden.
Ditch \Ditch\ (?; 224), n.; pl. {Ditches}. [OE. dich, orig. the same word as dik. See {Dike}.] 1. A trench made in the earth by digging, particularly a trench for draining wet land, for guarding or fencing inclosures, or for preventing an approach to a town or fortress. In the latter sense, it is called also a {moat} or a {fosse}.
2. Any long, narrow receptacle for water on the surface of the earth.
Apart from a sleazy sex industry and an intriguing golf-course built over the moat of the old walled town, Manila has little to offer the overseas visitor who is there for reasons other than business.
There also is a guard tower with warriors brandishing crossbows above a moat full of snapping turtles.
She said Aardu apparently leaped to freedom from his cage, which is bounded by a moat and a high wall with a railing.
The route is along a pavement around the moat that surrounds the Imperial Palace. It is within walking distance of many top business hotels, such as the Imperial and the Palace, or via Hibiya station on the green Chiyoda subway line.
In keeping with the theme, Excalibur has a drawbridge, a moat, spires, stone turrets and battlements. _ Hyatt joined the Chicago all-suite market in April with the opening of the 347-suite Hyatt Regency Suites on Michigan Avenue.
Two 'curtains' of water mark the entry point, which is a narrow bridge passing over the blue waters of the moat (I did wonder whether this relatively small entry point will cope with the anticipated millions of visitors).
The man, who asked zoo officials not to identify him, hauled the 135-pound chimp from the moat Sunday and pulled it safely onto an island where 10 chimpanzees are kept.
For years, the sound acted as a moat around the county, fending off the urban sprawl of Seattle across the water.
In February, a keeper's back was fractured when he was knocked into a moat by a 7,000-pound elephant.
He'll say, `Somebody came to see me, but they got wet when they fell into the moat."' Their association has lasted longer than any of Carson's marriages.
The present structure dates from the late 15th century. There is a fine moat at the aptly named Moat Farm at Dallinghoo, close to Woodbridge, in Suffolk.
So delicious was Chenonceaux with its plane trees, moat and two-story gallery, that Catherine de Medici moved right in after the death of husband Henry II and after removing the unhappy tenant, Diane de Poitiers, the deceased king's mistress.