Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Dead peat, dried up and more or less blown away, or washed away by the rain, so as to leave a curiously irregular surface, over which it is hardly possible to walk with safety.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • “The wean saw something like a white leddy that weised us the gate,” said Tibb; “when we were like to hae perished in the moss-hags — certain it was that Shagram reisted, and I ken Martin thinks he saw something.”

    The Monastery 2008

  • The desolate moors, the dreary mountains, the damp caves, the chilly moss-hags were before them, but their resting-place this night must be determined by the setting of the sun.

    Sketches of the Covenanters J. C. McFeeters

  • Gloomy caves, dripping moss-hags, and unmarked graves, were asylums of mercy to multitudes, who are without any earthly record; but their names are written in heaven.

    Sketches of the Covenanters J. C. McFeeters

  • He was obliged to lodge in moss-hags, sheils of shepherds, or holes dug in the ground by his followers; when sticks were kindled for a fire, and children conveyed to him food, not unfrequently without the knowledge of their parents.

    The Life of James Renwick A Historical Sketch Of His Life, Labours And Martyrdom And A Vindication Of His Character And Testimony Thomas Houston

  • Dumfriesshire and her Cameronians, with their great namesake's lion heart; Ayrshire, with her bloody memories of moor and moss-hags, of quarry and conventicle, of Laud and liberty -- all these had filtered through and reappeared in these silent and stalwart men.

    St. Cuthbert's Robert E. Knowles

  • They took shelter where it could be found -- under friendly roofs, within dismal caves, under dripping moss-hags, in the open fields, and on mountain tops.

    Sketches of the Covenanters J. C. McFeeters

  • Two or three whaups rose from the moss-hags and then sailed pee-weeting towards the hills, as if despatched by the moor to warn them of the coming of these strangers; and it was as if the range answered shortly,

    The Judge Rebecca West 1937

  • Bavelaw burn, a furtive trickle among the moss-hags, a brown rushy confusion between two moors.

    The Judge Rebecca West 1937

  • To the right of the white road that drove forward was a wide moor of dark moss-hags, flung like a crumpled cloth on a slope that stretched as far as the eye could see to the base of black hills about which clambered white mists.

    The Judge Rebecca West 1937

  • Many weary detours I made among moss-hags and screes and the stony channels of burns.

    Mr. Standfast John Buchan 1907

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