Word.ws English Dictionary

mothballing

mothballing is the present participle and gerund 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

Noun

mothballing (countable and uncountable, plural mothballings)

  1. The act of something being mothballed: taken out of service and stored for possible later use.

Forms of mothballing

pluralmothballings

Questions about mothballing

What does mothballing mean?
Mothballing means the act of something being mothballed: taken out of service and stored for possible later use.
What is mothballing the present participle and gerund of?
Mothballing is the present participle and gerund of mothball.
What part of speech is mothballing?
Mothballing is a noun.
What is the plural of mothballing?
The plural of mothballing is mothballings.

Words near mothballing in the dictionary

  1. mothball
  2. mothballable
  3. mothballed
  4. mothballer
  5. mothballers
  6. mothballing
  7. mothballings
  8. mothballs
  9. mothbally
  10. motheaten
  11. mothed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mothballing (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: “mothballing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mothballing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.