mothball
Americannoun
-
mothballs
plural
verb (used with object)
-
mothballs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
mothballed,
past participle, past
-
mothballing
present participle
adjective
idioms
noun
-
Also called: camphor ball. a small ball of camphor or naphthalene used to repel clothes moths in stored clothing, blankets, etc
-
to postpone work on (a project, activity, etc)
verb
-
to prepare (a ship, aircraft, etc) for a long period of storage by sealing all openings with plastic to prevent corrosion
-
to take (a factory, plant, etc) out of operation but maintain it so that it can be used in the future
-
to postpone work on (a project, activity, etc)
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
mothballsimple
-
mothballssimple
-
have mothballedperfect
-
has mothballedperfect
-
am mothballingprogressive
-
are mothballingprogressive
-
is mothballingprogressive
-
have been mothballingperfect progressive
-
has been mothballingperfect progressive
Past
-
mothballedsimple
-
had mothballedperfect
-
was mothballingprogressive
-
were mothballingprogressive
-
had been mothballingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of mothball
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.
See Examples For:
Meanwhile, the metal’s prices could be supported by supply concerns after miner South32 disclosed plans to mothball its smelter in Mozambique, according to the analysts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 16, 2026
Manolo Blahnik did a shoehorn, Isaac Mizrahi designed a mothball that’s a cube, so it didn’t roll, and I ran it at 30 pages with the title “Hey, Target: How About This?”
From New York Times ● Jul. 1, 2023
Also, the shipyard is home to a mothball fleet — many ships on the way to scrapping — which fluctuates in size.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 3, 2021
Briant has had to mothball the giant inflatable walk-through colon she used to send to events in tribal areas and gatherings of agricultural workers throughout Washington State.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 18, 2021
For example, many combat ships are being returned to active duty from the "mothball fleet" and many others can be put into service on very short notice.
From State of the Union Address by Harry S. Truman
I may still need to get my megaphone out of mothballs after all.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 23, 2024
Growing up, restaurateur Andy Kalish associated two smells with Friday nights: his grandmother's chicken soup and mothballs in his grandfather's closet.
From Salon ● Apr. 16, 2022
He wasn’t interested in anything that reeked of mothballs and dust.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 29, 2021
Rowlf the philosophical piano-playing dog, a regular on “The Jimmy Dean Show” in the 1960s, is brought out of mothballs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2021
The Commander, instead, smells of mothballs, or is this odor some punitive form of aftershave?
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
Other flagship policies including the redevelopment of Casement Park and the A5 road project also remain mothballed due to financial and legal disputes.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
The approved buyer of the mothballed residential, hotel and retail project is a partnership led by Kali P. Chaudhuri, whose KPC Development Co. owns and builds commercial properties in California and India.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
The war could make it easier for Takaichi to reopen mothballed nuclear plants that were supplying 30% of the country’s electricity before the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
From Barron's ● May 14, 2026
Other mothballed projects include a quarter-mile-tall, cube-shaped building big enough to hold 25 Empire State Buildings, the Journal previously reported.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 18, 2026
A boy’s cap hangs on the wall; at the back looms a massive wardrobe, mothballed shirts hung inside.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
Goldman Sachs raised its second-quarter Brent crude forecast by $10 to $76 a barrel, as Iraq began mothballing some oil production.
From Barron's ● Mar. 4, 2026
Whatever the case, “Adult/Child’s” mothballing led to another withdrawal by Wilson, who had far less to do with the band’s next few records and who eventually turned to a solo career.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 27, 2026
Critics say this mothballing will amount to a death warrant, and have asked San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors to give the fountain another chance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 7, 2026
Arcadium Lithium followed suit this month, announcing that it would be mothballing its Mt Cattlin mine in Western Australia, blaming low prices.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2024
But that era ended when Alcoa terminated the Intalco agreement before mothballing the facility in 2020.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 20, 2022
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.
