peat-moss
[f. peat1 + moss.]
I. 1. A peat-bog: the regular name in the North.
| c 1260 Newminster Cartul. (Surtees) 71 Per viam quæ vocatur Petemosway. 1543 Richmond Wills (Surtees) 39 My peat mosse at ye Stonyford bryge, and ye peat cote there bulded. 1765 Douglas in Phil. Trans. LVIII. 187 In almost every peat-moss, there are the remains of oak trees. 1832 Lyell Princ. Geol. II. 213 Gradual conversion of a dry tract into a swamp, and lastly a peat-moss. |
b. Without a or pl.: The substance peat.
| 1830 Kyle Farm Rep. 42 in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb. III, Peat moss was..regularly mixed with it in layers. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. II. xx. 202 The fires were of peat-moss greased with the fat of the bird-skins. |
II. 2. The bog-moss (Sphagnum); pl. the family of mosses that grow in peat-bogs. rare.
| 1880 Braithwaite (title) The Sphagnaceæ or Peat Mosses of Europe and North America. |