3 uses
(click/touch triangles for details)
Definition
describing an issue or discussion as irrelevant due to another issue or decision
or:
arguable with no clear-cut answer (especially with regard to case law)
or:
arguable with no clear-cut answer (especially with regard to case law)
- First: The uncertain, unsettled condition of this science of Cetology is in the very vestibule attested by the fact, that in some quarters it still remains a moot point whether a whale be a fish.Chapters 31-33 -- Queen Mab; Cetology; The Specksnyder (25% in)
- Whether to admit Hercules among us or not, concerning this I long remained dubious: for though according to the Greek mythologies, that antique Crockett and Kit Carson—that brawny doer of rejoicing good deeds, was swallowed down and thrown up by a whale; still, whether that strictly makes a whaleman of him, that might be mooted.Chapters 82-84 -- The Honour and Glory of Whaling; Jonah Historically Regarded; Pitchpoling (29% in)
- ...look-outs at the mast-heads of the whaleships, now penetrating even through Behring's straits, and into the remotest secret drawers and lockers of the world; and the thousand harpoons and lances darted along all continental coasts; the moot point is, whether Leviathan can long endure so wide a chase, and so remorseless a havoc; whether he must not at last be exterminated from the waters, and the last whale, like the last man, smoke his last pipe, and then himself evaporate in the...Chapters 103-105 -- Measurement of The Whale's Skeleton; The Fossil Whale; Does the Whale Diminish (75% in)
There are no more uses of "moot" in Moby Dick.
Typical Usage
(best examples)