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Glite Dictionary
🟣 A pest repellent 📦 To store away
mothball

mothball

16 5.2
A small ball you put with stored clothes to keep moths away
  • noun
  • /ˈmɔːθbɔːl/
translation icon : bola de naftalina
  • To protect my winter clothes, I stored them with mothballs in the wardrobe.
  • smelled mothballs
  • mothball scent
  • closet smelled of mothballs

You don't know where to start and the whole place smells like mothballs.

Examples

  • I just got it out of the mothballs over at Pop's house.

    The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

  • Yes, I can smell the mothballs.

    Anastasia (1956)

  • I took my tuxedo out of mothballs yesterday.

    Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

  • The room was musty and smelled of mothballs and dust.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Rosie tugged at my sleeve and motioned me behind a tall, scarred wardrobe that smelled of mothballs and cloves.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Grandmother's room, which was shrouded in perpetual gloom, had an air of melancholy and smelled of velvet, mothballs, and featherbeds.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The faint smell of mothballs reminded me of my grandmother's attic.

  • She placed mothballs in the closet to keep the moths away from her sweaters.

Synonyms

camphor ball
vsmothball
8.1

A small white ball that keeps moths away from stored clothes

is the same object but named as a single short word
mothproofing
vsmothball
4.9

A treatment that protects clothes and carpets from moths

is the specific small solid item placed among stored clothing rather than a treatment

Surface Forms

mothball singular
mothballs plural

Morphology

mothball = moth + ball (transparent) = moth + ball

The noun is a straightforward compound of 'moth' + 'ball' whose meaning (a small ball used to repel moths) is directly inferable.

Etymology

Mothball comes from the simple idea of a small ball used to protect clothing from moths. It means a little, strong-smelling ball placed with stored clothes to 'keep moths away' and protect your sweaters.