- present participle of moor.
mooring
Americannoun
-
a place for mooring a vessel
-
a permanent anchor, dropped in the water and equipped with a floating buoy, to which vessels can moor
Etymology
Origin of mooring
1375–1425; late Middle English; compare Middle Dutch moor; see moor 2, -ing 1
Explanation
A mooring is kind of like a parking lot for boats — it's a place people can keep their dinghies, sailboats, or ships tied up. One complication of owning a boat is that you need to rent a mooring for it, a place to keep it while you're not out on the water. Piers, docks, and wharfs all typically provide moorings for boats and ships, where they can be attached securely with ropes. Mooring comes from the verb moor, "to fasten by cable," from a Germanic root.
Vocabulary lists containing mooring
"Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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Song of Solomon
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"Paul Revere's Ride," Vocabulary from the poem
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The crews use mooring ropes to lash the ships as close as 11 feet from each other so that they roll in the waves together.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
A major Russian oil terminal near the southern port of Novorossiysk halted operations early Saturday after a naval drone attack damaged one of its three mooring points.
From Barron's ● Nov. 29, 2025
Mr Bane said he had woken up when he heard the anchor alarm - which rings if the boat is straying from its mooring - and realised that Sarm was no longer on the yacht.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2025
Analysis of mooring observations and hydrographic data suggest the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation deep water limb in the North Atlantic has weakened.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 19, 2024
He’d stand up in the stern, the better to squint at the imaginary mooring.
From "Cheaper by the Dozen" by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
