Definition of "moth"

moth¹

/mɒθ/

noun
plural moths
1. A usually nocturnal insect of the order Lepidoptera, distinguished from butterflies by feather-like antennae.
  Quotations
  Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.
  2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 206–7
2. (figurative) Anything that gradually and silently eats, consumes, or wastes any other thing.
verb
third-person singular simple present moths, present participle mothing, simple past and past participle mothed
1. (intransitive) To hunt for moths.

moth²

/məʊt/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural moths
1. The plant Vigna aconitifolia, moth bean.

moth³

noun
plural moths
1. Obsolete form of mote.
  Quotations
  So that, dear lords, if I be left behind, / A moth of peace, and he go to the war, / The rites for which I love him are bereft me, / And I a heavy interim shall support / By his dear absence. Let me go with him.
  c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene iii]
2. (dated) A liver spot, especially an irregular or feathery one.
  Quotations
  To remove moth patches, wash the spots with a solution of common bicarbonate of soda and water several times a day, until the patches are removed, which will usually be in forty-eight hours.
  1895, Good Housekeeping, page 196, ISSN: 0731-3462
  Craves for sour things, chalks and eggs, fatty people with light brown spots on the face or liver spots, moth patches on forehead and cheek.
  1999, R. L. Gupta, Directory of Diseases & Cures: In Homoeopathy, page 254
  There are signs of liver affections as weakness, yellow complexion, liver spots, and moth spot like a saddle over the nose.
  2005, J. D. Patil, Textbook of Applied Materia Medica, page 108