From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmothballmoth‧ball1 /ˈmɒθbɔːl $ ˈmɒːθbɒːl/ noun 1 DCCDH[countable usually plural] a small ball made of a strong-smelling chemical, used for keeping moths away from clothes2 → in/into mothballs
Examples from the Corpus
mothball• Marie said, following Helen along the hallway with its familiar dank smell of musty horsehair and cedar and mothballs.• You could also drop mothballs or peeled garlic cloves or sprinkle hot pepper into the tunnels.• The £5,500 creation is currently in mothballs in a warehouse in downtown Los Angeles.• And the plants that Thorn-EMI set up to press the discs will remain in mothballs.• That means it may be as long as three years before Fire Station 28 comes out of mothballs, Cornwell said.• Or bringing Tony Danza out of mothballs.• An additional experiment demonstrated that the smell of mothballs had the same effect.• The smell of mothballs rose to greet her.mothballmothball2 verb [transitive] KEEP/STOREto stop using a factory, equipment etc or to not continue with a plan, temporarily but possibly for a long time The hospital manager said the project would be mothballed until funding became available.→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
mothball• The Defense Department plans to mothball a munitions plant.From Longman Business Dictionarymothballmoth‧ball1 /ˈmɒθbɔːlˈmɒːθbɒːl/ verb [transitive]1if an organization mothballs a factory, building etc, it closes it or does not use it for a long time but may open it or use it again in the futureThe oil company plans to mothball one of its five refineries.2if an organization mothballs plans, it decides not to use them for the moment but may possibly use them laterNo decisions have been made to mothball the project.→ See Verb tablemothballmothball2 noun put something in mothballs/take something out of mothballs if a building, factory etc or a plan is put in mothballs, it is no longer used but may be used later. If is taken out of mothballs, it is used againA number of its distillieries have been put in mothballs. 