"mooncalf" meaning in English

See mooncalf in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈmuːnkɑːf/ [UK] Forms: mooncalves [plural]
Etymology: From moon + calf, after a superstition that the moon caused abnormal fetal development. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|moon|calf}} moon + calf Head templates: {{en-noun|mooncalves}} mooncalf (plural mooncalves)
  1. (now rare) An abnormal mass within the uterus; a false conception. Tags: archaic Categories (topical): Abortion
    Sense id: en-mooncalf-en-noun-dvFmqLzU Disambiguation of Abortion: 79 15 6 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Obsolete scientific theories Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 58 22 20 Disambiguation of Obsolete scientific theories: 57 22 21
  2. A poorly-conceived idea or plan.
    Sense id: en-mooncalf-en-noun-OvDc6KtC
  3. A dreamer, someone absent-minded or distracted; a fool, simpleton.
    Sense id: en-mooncalf-en-noun-1hTj6BmO
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: moon-calf Related terms: moon, moonstruck, moonbat

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for mooncalf meaning in English (2.9kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "moon",
        "3": "calf"
      },
      "expansion": "moon + calf",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From moon + calf, after a superstition that the moon caused abnormal fetal development.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "mooncalves",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "mooncalves"
      },
      "expansion": "mooncalf (plural mooncalves)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "moon"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "moonstruck"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "moonbat"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "58 22 20",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "57 22 21",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Obsolete scientific theories",
          "orig": "en:Obsolete scientific theories",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "79 15 6",
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Abortion",
          "orig": "en:Abortion",
          "parents": [
            "Pregnancy",
            "Body",
            "Gynaecology",
            "Human",
            "Female",
            "Medicine",
            "All topics",
            "Gender",
            "Biology",
            "Sciences",
            "Fundamental",
            "Psychology",
            "Sociology",
            "Social sciences",
            "Society"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An abnormal mass within the uterus; a false conception."
      ],
      "id": "en-mooncalf-en-noun-dvFmqLzU",
      "links": [
        [
          "mass",
          "mass"
        ],
        [
          "false",
          "false"
        ],
        [
          "conception",
          "conception"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(now rare) An abnormal mass within the uterus; a false conception."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A poorly-conceived idea or plan."
      ],
      "id": "en-mooncalf-en-noun-OvDc6KtC",
      "links": [
        [
          "idea",
          "idea"
        ],
        [
          "plan",
          "plan"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1902, John Kendrick Bangs, chapter 10, in Olympian Nights, New York: Harper & Bros., page 185",
          "text": "“[…] you’re a jobbernowl and a doodle, a maundering mooncalf and a blockheaded numps, a gaby and a loon; you’re a Hatter!” I shrieked the last epithet.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1957, Ogden Nash, “Come On In, The Senility Is Fine”, in You Can’t Get There From Here, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., page 66",
          "text": "But I can think of no one but a mooncalf or a gaby\nWho would trust their own child to raise a baby.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 463",
          "text": "He slipped it softly onto her unresisting finger and, like the unwise moncalf he was, kissed it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A dreamer, someone absent-minded or distracted; a fool, simpleton."
      ],
      "id": "en-mooncalf-en-noun-1hTj6BmO",
      "links": [
        [
          "dreamer",
          "dreamer"
        ],
        [
          "absent-minded",
          "absent-minded"
        ],
        [
          "fool",
          "fool"
        ],
        [
          "simpleton",
          "simpleton"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈmuːnkɑːf/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "moon-calf"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "mooncalf"
  ],
  "word": "mooncalf"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English 2-syllable words",
    "English compound terms",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English nouns with irregular plurals",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "en:Abortion",
    "en:Obsolete scientific theories"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "moon",
        "3": "calf"
      },
      "expansion": "moon + calf",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From moon + calf, after a superstition that the moon caused abnormal fetal development.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "mooncalves",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "mooncalves"
      },
      "expansion": "mooncalf (plural mooncalves)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "moon"
    },
    {
      "word": "moonstruck"
    },
    {
      "word": "moonbat"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with rare senses"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An abnormal mass within the uterus; a false conception."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "mass",
          "mass"
        ],
        [
          "false",
          "false"
        ],
        [
          "conception",
          "conception"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(now rare) An abnormal mass within the uterus; a false conception."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "archaic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A poorly-conceived idea or plan."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "idea",
          "idea"
        ],
        [
          "plan",
          "plan"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1902, John Kendrick Bangs, chapter 10, in Olympian Nights, New York: Harper & Bros., page 185",
          "text": "“[…] you’re a jobbernowl and a doodle, a maundering mooncalf and a blockheaded numps, a gaby and a loon; you’re a Hatter!” I shrieked the last epithet.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1957, Ogden Nash, “Come On In, The Senility Is Fine”, in You Can’t Get There From Here, Boston: Little, Brown & Co., page 66",
          "text": "But I can think of no one but a mooncalf or a gaby\nWho would trust their own child to raise a baby.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 463",
          "text": "He slipped it softly onto her unresisting finger and, like the unwise moncalf he was, kissed it.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A dreamer, someone absent-minded or distracted; a fool, simpleton."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "dreamer",
          "dreamer"
        ],
        [
          "absent-minded",
          "absent-minded"
        ],
        [
          "fool",
          "fool"
        ],
        [
          "simpleton",
          "simpleton"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈmuːnkɑːf/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "moon-calf"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "mooncalf"
  ],
  "word": "mooncalf"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.