Mortar

Quick meaning: Mortar is a noun meaning (uncountable) A mixture of lime or cement, sand and water used for bonding building blocks.

Meaning

(uncountable) A mixture of lime or cement, sand and water used for bonding building blocks.

More Meanings

1. (countable) A hollow vessel used to pound, crush, rub, grind or mix ingredients with a pestle.
2. (countable, military, historical) A short, heavy, large-bore cannon designed for indirect fire at very steep trajectories.
3. (countable) In paper milling, a trough in which material is hammered.
4. (transitive) To use mortar or plaster to join two things together.
5. (transitive) To pound in a mortar.
6. To fire a mortar (weapon).
7. (countable, military) A relatively lightweight, often portable indirect fire weapon which transmits recoil to a base plate and is designed to lob explosive shells at very steep trajectories.

Example Sentences

The insurgents snuck up close and mortared the base last night.

The holy hearth! If any earthly and material thing, or rather a divine idea embodied in brick and mortar, might be supposed to possess the permanence of moral truth, it was this.

Word Forms

• mortars
• morter
• mortaring
• mortared

Synonyms for mortar

Depending on context, synonyms include howitzer.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include howitzer, cement, grout, grenade, shrapnel, artillery.

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