MORTAR • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Mortar

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/mˈɔrtər/ Listen

noun

Mortar n.

A strong vessel, commonly in form of an inverted bell, in which substances are pounded or rubbed with a pestle.

(Mil.) A short piece of ordnance, used for throwing bombs, carcasses, shells, etc., at high angles of elevation, as 45°, and even higher; so named from its resemblance in shape to the utensil above described.

Mortar bed (Mil.), a framework of wood and iron, suitably hollowed out to receive the breech and trunnions of a mortar.

Mortar boat or Mortar vessel (Naut.), a boat strongly built and adapted to carrying a mortar or mortars for bombarding; a bomb ketch.

Mortar piece, a mortar. (Obs.)

Mortar n. (Arch.) A building material made by mixing lime, cement, or plaster of Paris, with sand, water, and sometimes other materials; used in masonry for joining stones, bricks, etc., also for plastering, and in other ways.

Mortar bed, a shallow box or receptacle in which mortar is mixed.

Mortar n. A chamber lamp or light. (Obs.)

verb

Mortar v. t. To plaster or make fast with mortar.

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Etymology of 'Mortar'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Mortar" Quotes from Famous Books

... as it distils, and when it begins to slack, then increase your Fire till the Glass begin to glow; continu this heat till no more will distil, then let it cool of it self, take the Receiver off, stop it very close with Wax, take the Matter out of the Glass, beat it to powder in an Iron Mortar, with a steel Pestle; and then grind it on a Stone with good distilled Vinegar, put this Matter so ground into a Pot, poure good distilled Vinegar upon it, that two parts be full, set the Pot into a Bath ...

— Of Natural and Supernatural Things • Basilius Valentinus

... its foundations in bygone days.... Buried treasure, looted, some of it, for the palace overhead, but still rare and lovely.... That was a gleam of lapis lazuli that winked at him from the crumbling mortar under his feet. ...

— The Fortieth Door • Mary Hastings Bradley

... steadily in feathery flakes, hiding the grime of London beneath a garment of shimmering white and transforming the commonplace houses built of brick and mortar, each capped with its ugly chimneystack, into glittering fairy palaces, crowned with silver ...

— The Lamp of Fate • Margaret Pedler

... was levelled; Sugarlips backed against an adjoining wall, with a nervous adhesiveness that evidently proved him less fearful of a little mortar than a great gun! ...

— The Sketches of Seymour (Illustrated), Complete • Robert Seymour

... There was an unaccustomed decision in his tones; the boyish inflection had gone. It was a man who was speaking, and determinedly, too. "You've no business to be everlastingly gazing at green fields. You ought to be turning 'em into music so that the people who've got only bricks and mortar to stare at can get ...

— The Moon out of Reach • Margaret Pedler

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