EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR MOAT
The rectory was often surrounded by a moat, with an entrance protected by a gatehouse.
Charley got me information about the fair, and the day before it, I set out for the Moat.
I should have done better to go down to the Moat, and be silent.
A moment later it rang home against the wall on my side of the moat.
Me she had not seen, nor did she till I darted out of my ambush, and leapt after Rupert into the moat.
If they searched the moat, indeed, my scheme must fail; but I did not think they would.
But yonder, ahead of him, something black lay athwart the moat.
A crimson splash of light fell on the moat on either side of him.
This, with some efforts and more noise than Gonzaga relished, was thrust across the moat.
The moat is none so distant, and the immersion may profit you.
WORD ORIGIN
mid-14c., from Old French mote "mound, hillock, embankment; castle built on a hill" (12c.; Modern French motte), from Medieval Latin mota "mound, fortified height," of unknown origin, perhaps from Gaulish mutt, mutta. Sense shifted in Norman French from the castle mound to the ditch dug around it. As a verb, "to surround with a moat," early 15c.