mortar

noun

1. 1

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

   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.

2. 2

   A hollow vessel used to pound, crush, rub, grind or mix ingredients with a pestle.

3. 3

   historicalA short, heavy, large-bore cannon designed for indirect fire at very steep trajectories.

4. 4

   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.

5. 5

   In paper milling, a trough in which material is hammered.

verb

1. 1

   To use mortar or plaster to join two things together.

2. 2

   To pound in a mortar.

3. 3

   To fire a mortar (weapon).

4. 4

   To attack (someone or something) using a mortar (weapon).

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

Forms

plural

mortars

past tense

mortared

past participle

mortared

present participle

mortaring

third person singular

mortars