Definition of "moat" []

• A deep wide ditch, usually filled with water, typically surrounding a fortified medieval town, fortress, or castle as a protection against assault. (noun)
• A ditch similar to one surrounding a fortification: A moat separates the animals in the zoo from the spectators. (noun)
• To surround with or as if with a moat. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "That is a characteristic he has long sought in investments, which he calls a "moat" against competition."
• "Saving the day on the other side of the moat is my skinny-ass Haitian neighbor Gustav, he literally pulls me up along the dirt out the moat!"
• "Mr. GLASSMAN: I would put -- we recommend putting most of it or let's say $50 or $60 of it into growth stocks; that is to say larger companies that have shown in the past that they can increase their earnings at a pretty good clip and have a-- what we call a moat around their business, a kind of a franchise."