From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmoatmoat /məʊt $ moʊt/ noun [countable] 1 PMDa deep wide hole, usually filled with water, dug around a castle as a defence2 DLTHBAa deep wide hole dug around an area in a zoo, used to stop animals from escaping —moated adjective
Examples from the Corpus
moat• To the south-west, a deep moat, spanned by a drawbridge, completed defences.• No one spoke of it but it was there, like a little moat between us, widening each day.• Silently, he went down into the water and swam across the moat.• The far end of his cell faced the moat, where executions took place.• The new north front was built rising directly from the moat.• He could not understand why he should not put them in the moats.• But, before she could shoot, Rupert jumped over the side of the bridge, and down into the moat below.• It was surrounded by a 100-foot-wide moat, crossed by causeways lined by statues of soldiers and elephants.Origin moat (1300-1400) Old French mote, motte “small hill (on which a castle was built)” 