moor¹ / ˈmoŏr/ • n. a tract of open uncultivated upland; a heath. ∎  a tract of such land preserved for shooting: a grouse moor. ∎  a fen.DERIVATIVES: moor·ish adj.moor·y adj.moor² • v. [tr.] (often be moored) make fast (a vessel) to the shore or to an anchor: twenty or so fishing boats were moored to the pier. ∎  [intr.] (of a boat) be made fast somewhere in this way: we moored alongside a jetty.DERIVATIVES: moor·age / ˈmoŏrij/ n.

Moors Predominantly Berber people of nw Africa. In Europe, the name applies particularly to the North African Muslims who invaded Spain in 711, and established a distinctive civilization that lasted nearly 800 years. It was at its height under the Cordoba caliphs in the 10th and 11th centuries. The Christian rulers of n Spain gradually reconquered the country until, after the Almohad Empire broke up in the 13th century, Granada alone survived. Granada itself fell in 1492. See also Alhambra

moor An acidic area, usually high-lying and with peat development, and most typically dominated by low-growing ericaceous shrubs (especially Vaccinium myrtillus, bilberry), though including grass and sedge-dominated areas. In many respects the terms ‘moor’ and ‘heath’ are interchangeable. A. G. Tansley (1939) maintained a traditional distinction between upland and lowland heaths, as opposed to heather moors, which have deeper peat development rather than any distinctive floral characteristics. Compare HEATHLAND.

moor An acidic area, usually high-lying and with peat development, and most typically dominated by low-growing ericaceous shrubs (especially Vaccinium myrtillus, bilberry), though including grass and sedge-dominated areas. In many respects the terms ‘moor’ and ‘heath’ are interchangeable. A. G.Tansley (1939) maintained a traditional distinction between upland and lowland heaths, as opposed to heather moors, which have deeper peat development rather than any distinctive floral characteristics. Compare heathland.

Moor a member of a NW African Muslim people of mixed Berber and Arab descent. In the 8th century they conquered the Iberian peninsula, but were finally driven out of their last stronghold in Granada at the end of the 15th century.

In the Middle Ages, and as late as the 17th century, the Moors were commonly supposed to be mostly black or very dark-skinned; the name was thus sometimes used in the sense ‘a black person’.

The name comes from Old French More, via Latin from Greek Mauros ‘inhabitant of Mauretania’.