abbreviation for modus operandi, manner of operating; -- often used to refer to the method an habitual criminal uses to perpetrate his crime. [ PJC ]

a., adv., & n. [ Written also moe. ] [ AS. mā. See More. ] More; -- usually, more in number. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

An hundred thousand mo. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

Likely to find mo to commend than to imitate it. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Chem.) chemical symbol for the element molybdenum. [ PJC ]

n. [ Native name. ] (Zool.) Any one of several very large extinct species of wingless birds belonging to Dinornis, and other related genera, of the suborder Dinornithes, found in New Zealand. They are allied to the apteryx and the ostrich. They were probably exterminated by the natives before New Zealand was discovered by Europeans. Some species were much larger than the ostrich. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One of the posterity of Moab, the son of Lot. (Gen. xix. 37.) Also used adjectively. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A female Moabite. Ruth i. 22. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Archaeol.) A block of black basalt, found at Dibon in Moab by Rev. F. A. Klein, Aug. 19, 1868, which bears an inscription of thirty-four lines, dating from the 9th century b. c., and written in the Moabite alphabet, the oldest Phoenician type of the Semitic alphabet. It records the victories of Mesha, king of Moab, esp. those over Israel (2 Kings iii. 4, 5, 27). [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

a. Moabite. Ruth ii. 6. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. 1. To bewail audibly; to lament. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ye floods, ye woods, ye echoes, moan
My dear Columbo, dead and gone. Prior. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To afflict; to distress. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Which infinitely moans me. Beau. & Fl. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ imp. & p. p. Moaned p. pr. & vb. n. Moaning. ] [ AS. m&aemacr_;nan to moan, also, to mean; but in the latter sense perh. a different word. Cf. Mean to intend. ] 1. To make a low prolonged sound of grief or pain, whether articulate or not; to groan softly and continuously. [ 1913 Webster ]

Unpitied and unheard, where misery moans. Thomson. [ 1913 Webster ]

Let there bechance him pitiful mischances,
To make him moan. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To emit a sound like moan; -- said of things inanimate; as, the wind moans. [ 1913 Webster ]