mossie
/ˈmɒs.i/UK/ˈmɒz.i/
mossie noun: any of various species of sparrow, especially Passer melanurus.
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Noun (1)
mossie (plural mossies)
- Any of various species of sparrow, especially Passer melanurus.
- Our four baby mossies have left the nest.1963, Lady Joy Petersen Packer, Home from Sea, page 221
- Another highly successful species, which has become a serious pest of fruit, is the Mossie or Cape Sparrow. The male mossie, with his black and white head and rufous mantle, is rather a handsome little bird; his wife lacks the head markings, being grey-brown with a pale eye-stripe.1969, J. M. Winterbottom, Cornelis Janse Uys, Some Birds of the Cape, page 93
Noun (2)
mossie (plural mossies)
- A mosquito.
- She came out, standing a head taller than him, tugging a loose cotton shift into place, and made for a rough brick fireplace beside a pile of rusting pots and pans.
‘Come inside,’ Willi said. ‘The mossies will eat you alive out here.’1996, Patricia Shaw, The Opal Seekers, unnumbered page - Tip 1 : Make sure there is clearance between your body and the net. If the net touches your skin, the mossie will be able to bite you through it.2003, Jack Lagan, A B Sea: A Loose-Footed Lexicon, page 211
- She came out, standing a head taller than him, tugging a loose cotton shift into place, and made for a rough brick fireplace beside a pile of rusting pots and pans.
Proper noun capitalized: Mossie
Mossie
- A diminutive of the male given name Maurice.
Noun (3) capitalized: Mossie
Mossie (plural Mossies)
- A de Havilland Mosquito.
- He leaned into the electric gunsight, aiming the Mossie at the left wingroot between engine and fuselage, where he knew there were fuel tanks — his right thumb mashed the control-column firing button.1983, John Kelly, The Wooden Wolf, page 142
- The Mossies were still able to land before the bombers were over the Channel.1993, Air League of the British Empire, Air Pictorial: Journal of the Air League, volume 55, page 8
Noun (4) capitalized: Mossie
Mossie (plural Mossies)
Examples of mossie in a sentence
- It spooks the mossies on the overhead telegraph wire.2004, Troy Blacklaws, Karoo Boy, page 78:
- Apart from the obvious—mossie coils, citronella candles, zappers, fine nets suspended over beds and Rid roll-on or spray—he decided to invest in bush gear from an army disposal store.2012, Susan Kurosawa, Coasting: A Year by the Bay, unnumbered page:
Forms of mossie
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | mossies |
| alternative form | mozzie |
| alternative form | mozzy |
| alternative form | mossy |
| plural | Mossies |
| Proper noun | |
| alternative form | Mozzie |
Origin of mossie
From Afrikaans, from Dutch mus (“a sparrow”).
Diminutive formed from mosquito. Compare Dutch meuzie (“mosquito”).
Diminutive of Maurice + -ie.
Words that rhyme with mossie
Questions about mossie
- What does mossie mean?
- Mossie means any of various species of sparrow, especially Passer melanurus.
- How do you use mossie in a sentence?
- It spooks the mossies on the overhead telegraph wire.
- What part of speech is mossie?
- Mossie can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce mossie?
- Mossie is pronounced /ˈmɒs.i/.
- What is the plural of mossie?
- The plural of mossie is mossies.
Words near mossie in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mossie (page history and authors); Mossie (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-mossie.ogg.
Cite this entry: “mossie.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mossie. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.