mortar

See also: mortâr and mörtar

English

Three bricks held together with mortar (sense 1).
A mid-19th century naval mortar (sense 3).
A mid-20th century infantry mortar (sense 4).
Mortar and pestle (sense 2).

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English morter, from Old French mortier, from Latin mortārium. Doublet of mortarium.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈmɔːtə(ɹ)/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)tə(ɹ)

Noun

mortar (countable and uncountable, plural mortars)

  1. (uncountable) A mixture of lime or cement, sand and water used for bonding building blocks.
    • 1846, Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Fire Worship”, in Mosses from an Old Manse:
      The holy hearth! If any earthly and material thing, or rather a divine idea embodied in brick and mortar, might be supposed to possess the permanence of moral truth, it was this.
  2. (countable) A hollow vessel used to pound, crush, rub, grind or mix ingredients with a pestle.
    Synonyms: mortar and pestle, pestle and mortar
  3. (countable, military, historical) A short, heavy, large-bore cannon designed for indirect fire at very steep trajectories.
  4. (countable, military) A relatively lightweight, often portable indirect fire weapon which transmits recoil to a base plate and is designed to lob explosive shells at very steep trajectories. [from 20th c.]
  5. (countable) In paper milling, a trough in which material is hammered.

Derived terms

Descendants

  • Indonesian: mortar

Translations

Verb

mortar (third-person singular simple present mortars, present participle mortaring, simple past and past participle mortared)

  1. (transitive) To use mortar or plaster to join two things together.
  2. (transitive) To pound in a mortar.
  3. To fire a mortar (weapon).
  4. To attack (someone or something) using a mortar (weapon).
    The insurgents snuck up close and mortared the base last night.

See also

Anagrams

Ido

Etymology

Derived from morto + -ar.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /mɔrˈtar/

Verb

mortar (present mortas, past mortis, future mortos, conditional mortus, imperative mortez)

  1. (intransitive, literally and figuratively) to die, cease to live, depart this life
  2. (intransitive) to go out (of fire, lights, etc.)
  3. (intransitive) to come to an end (of movement)

Conjugation

Indonesian

Etymology

From English mortar, from Middle English morter, from Old French mortier, from Latin mortārium. Doublet of mortir.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈmɔr.tar]
  • Hyphenation: mor‧tar

Noun

mortar (first-person possessive mortarku, second-person possessive mortarmu, third-person possessive mortarnya)

  1. mortar,
    1. a mixture of lime or cement, sand and water used for bonding building blocks.
    2. a hollow vessel used to pound, crush, rub, grind or mix ingredients with a pestle.
      Synonym: lumpang

Further reading

Middle English

Noun

mortar

  1. Alternative form of morter

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

mortar m

  1. indefinite plural of mort

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin mortārium (19th century).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /morˈtar/

Noun

mortar n (uncountable)

  1. mortar (construction material)

Declension

Further reading

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