Word.ws English Dictionary

mooncalves

mooncalves is the plural of mooncalf.

Meaning of mooncalf

Noun

mooncalf (plural mooncalves)

  1. (archaic) An abnormal mass within the uterus; a false conception.
    • Thou art very Trinculo indeed! How camest thou to be the siege of this moon-calf? Can he vent Trinculos?1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
  2. A poorly conceived idea or plan.
  3. A dreamer, someone absent-minded or distracted; a fool, simpleton.
    • “[…] 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.1902, John Kendrick Bangs, chapter 10, in Olympian Nights, New York: Harper & Bros., page 185

Questions about mooncalves

What is mooncalves the plural of?
Mooncalves is the plural of mooncalf.

Words near mooncalves in the dictionary

  1. moonburn
  2. moonburns
  3. mooncake
  4. mooncakes
  5. mooncalf
  6. mooncalves
  7. moonchild
  8. moonchildren
  9. moonclad
  10. mooncraft
  11. mooncrafts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mooncalves (page history and authors); mooncalf (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “mooncalves.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mooncalves. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.