mortar

Mortar is a bowl or machine used for grinding, a cannon or other shooting device or a mixture used in building for binding materials together.

(noun)

  1. An example of mortar is a stone bowl that you would use with a pestle to grind seeds into a powder.
  2. An example of a mortar is a weapon that fires explosives.
  3. An example of mortar is what a stone mason would use when building a rock wall.

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See mortar in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

  1. a very hard bowl in which softer substances are ground or pounded to a powder with a pestle
  2. any machine in which materials are ground or pounded
  3. Origin: Frmortier

    a short-barreled cannon with a low muzzle velocity, which hurls shells in a high trajectory
  4. any of various similar devices, for shooting lifelines, flares, etc.
  5. Origin: ME morter < MFr mortier < L mortarium, a mixture of sand and lime: so called from the vessel in which it was made

    a mixture of cement or lime with sand and water, used between bricks or stones to bind them together in building, or as plaster

Origin: ME mortere < OE mortere & OFr mortier, both < L mortarium, mixing vessel or trough < IE *mṛtos, pulverized < base *mer-, to rub: see morbid

transitive verb

  1. to plaster or bind together with mortar
  2. to attack with mortar shells

See mortar in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun
  1. A vessel in which substances are crushed or ground with a pestle.
  2. A machine in which materials are ground and blended or crushed.
  3. a. A portable, muzzleloading cannon used to fire shells at low velocities, short ranges, and high trajectories.
    b. Any of several similar devices, such as one that shoots life lines across a stretch of water.
  4. Any of various bonding materials used in masonry, surfacing, and plastering, especially a plastic mixture of cement or lime, sand, and water that hardens in place and is used to bind together bricks or stones.
transitive verb mor·tared, mor·tar·ing, mor·tars
  1. To bombard with mortar shells.
  2. To plaster or join with mortar.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English morter

Origin: , from Old English mortere

Origin: and from Old French mortier

Origin: , both from Latin mortārium; see mer- in Indo-European roots

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