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mothball

[mawth-bawl, moth-] / ˈmɔθˌbɔl, ˈmɒθ- /




Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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Although Lloyd may not care to look at them, there are all sorts of fancy metrics that illustrate exactly how odd it is for Arizona to mothball the 3-pointer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 29, 2026

Manolo Blahnik did a shoehorn, Isaac Mizrahi designed a mothball that’s a cube, so it didn’t roll, and I ran it at 30 pages with the title “Hey, Target: How About This?”

From New York Times ● Jul. 1, 2023

Also, the shipyard is home to a mothball fleet — many ships on the way to scrapping — which fluctuates in size.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 3, 2021

Briant has had to mothball the giant inflatable walk-through colon she used to send to events in tribal areas and gatherings of agricultural workers throughout Washington State.

From Scientific American ● Nov. 18, 2021

For example, many combat ships are being returned to active duty from the "mothball fleet" and many others can be put into service on very short notice.

From State of the Union Address by Harry S. Truman

Growing up, restaurateur Andy Kalish associated two smells with Friday nights: his grandmother's chicken soup and mothballs in his grandfather's closet.

From Salon ● Apr. 16, 2022

That system is long gone, relegated to the mothballs after the judging scandal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 15, 2022

She also took something else out of the mothballs: the maiden name and hyphen that she’d set aside for simplicity’s sake during the race.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 22, 2022

The September 1974 journal, dog-eared and smelling of pipe smoke and mothballs, included the first published reference to Morgan commissioning the timepiece.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 9, 2021

It’s a winter cloak, not a cotton summer one, and it smells of mothballs.

From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood

Other flagship policies including the redevelopment of Casement Park and the A5 road project also remain mothballed due to financial and legal disputes.

From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026

The approved buyer of the mothballed residential, hotel and retail project is a partnership led by Kali P. Chaudhuri, whose KPC Development Co. owns and builds commercial properties in California and India.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026

Plans were approved, then mothballed, and then resurrected.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026

Since then, Microsoft, Google and Meta have signed their own deals with mothballed nuclear-power plants or those slated to be shut down.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 24, 2026

Whether it was staying with the boyfriend of the month, or in a foreclosed home, or luxuriating in a mothballed beach house, I’ve done fine.

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

British chemical maker Ineos said last year it planned to shut two plants in Germany, after closing plants in the U.K. and Belgium and mothballing facilities in France and Spain.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026

Goldman Sachs raised its second-quarter Brent crude forecast by $10 to $76 a barrel, as Iraq began mothballing some oil production.

From Barron's ● Mar. 4, 2026

And it would vindicate the Dodgers’ strategy of all but mothballing an elite starting pitcher for almost three weeks and then handing him the ball and asking him to win them the division series.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2025

It was "in this context" Asos announced it was mothballing its warehouse in Lichfield - meaning it won't immediately be sold, but will not be used.

From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2023

But that era ended when Alcoa terminated the Intalco agreement before mothballing the facility in 2020.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 20, 2022




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