Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Mound?

\Mound\ (mound), n. [F. monde the world, L. mundus. See {Mundane}.] A ball or globe forming part of the regalia of an emperor or other sovereign. It is encircled with bands, enriched with precious stones, and surmounted with a cross; -- called also {globe}.
\Mound\, n. [OE. mound, mund, protection, AS. mund protection, hand; akin to OHG. munt, Icel. mund hand, and prob. to L. manus. See {Manual}.] An artificial hill or elevation of earth; a raised bank; an embarkment thrown up for defense; a bulwark; a rampart; also, a natural elevation appearing as if thrown up artificially; a regular and isolated hill, hillock, or knoll. To thrid the thickets or to leap the mounds. --Dryden. {Mound bird}. (Zo["o]l.) Same as {Mound maker} (below). {Mound builders} (Ethnol.), the tribe, or tribes, of North American aborigines who built, in former times, extensive mounds of earth, esp. in the valleys of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Formerly they were supposed to have preceded the Indians, but later investigations go to show that they were, in general, identical with the tribes that occupied the country when discovered by Europeans. {Mound maker} (Zo["o]l.), any one of the megapodes. {Shell mound}, a mound of refuse shells, collected by aborigines who subsisted largely on shellfish. See {Midden}, and {Kitchen middens}.
\Mound\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Mounded}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Mounding}.] To fortify or inclose with a mound.