Word.ws English Dictionary

mothballed

UK/mɒθbɔːld/

mothballed is the simple past and past participle of mothball.

Meaning of mothball

Verb

mothball (third-person singular simple present mothballs, present participle mothballing, simple past and past participle mothballed)

  1. (transitive) To store (clothing, etc.) with mothballs (noun sense 1).
  2. (figuratively, transitive, chiefly passive voice) To stop using (something), and often to put it in storage; specifically, while keeping it in good condition so it can be used in the future.
    • They mothballed the old version after the new one came out.
  3. (figuratively, transitive, chiefly passive voice) To stop work on (a plan, project, etc.) for the time being; to postpone, to shelve.
    • The fact that the START Treaty has just been signed is reason enough not to build one rail garrison train before mothballing the project.1991 September 26, [Carl] Levin, “Department of Defense Appropriations Act, Fiscal Year 1992”, in Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 102d Congress, First Session (United States...
    Synonyms:
    defer, set aside

See all 4 meanings of mothball

Adjective

mothballed (not comparable)

  1. Kept in good condition for possible future use. (of something out of use)
    • Reopening the mothballed Platform 4 at Birmingham Snow Hill, for example, is a relatively simple and inexpensive proposition that will relieve some of the capacity constraints at Birmingham Moor Street.2020 April 8, Maria Machancoses, “A boost from the Budget...”, in Rail, page 72

Questions about mothballed

What does mothballed mean?
Mothballed means kept in good condition for possible future use. (of something out of use).
What is mothballed the simple past and past participle of?
Mothballed is the simple past and past participle of mothball.
What part of speech is mothballed?
Mothballed is an adjective.
How do you pronounce mothballed?
Mothballed is pronounced /mɒθbɔːld/ (UK).

Words near mothballed in the dictionary

  1. mothahfuckers
  2. mothahfuggah
  3. mothahfuggahs
  4. mothball
  5. mothballable
  6. mothballed
  7. mothballer
  8. mothballers
  9. mothballing
  10. mothballings
  11. mothballs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mothballed (page history and authors); mothball (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: “mothballed.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mothballed. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.