moot Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a hypothetical case that law students argue as an exercise
    • he organized the weekly moot
  2. verb think about carefully; weigh
    deliberate; turn over; consider; debate.
    • They considered the possibility of a strike
    • Turn the proposal over in your mind
  3. adjective satellite of no legal significance (as having been previously decided)
  4. adjective satellite open to argument or debate
    disputable; arguable; debatable.
    • that is a moot question

WordNet

Moot verb
Definitions
  1. See 1st Mot. Obs. Chaucer.
Moot noun
Definitions
  1. (Shipbuilding) A ring for gauging wooden pins.
Moot transitive verb
Etymology
OE. moten, motien, AS. motan to meet or assemble for conversation, to discuss, dispute, fr. mot, gemot, a meeting, an assembly; akin to Icel. mot, MHG. muoz. Cf. Meet to come together.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Mooted ; present participle & verbal noun Mooting
Definitions
  1. To argue for and against; to debate; to discuss; to propose for discussion.
    A problem which hardly has been mentioned, much less mooted, in this country. Sir W. Hamilton.
  2. Specifically: To discuss by way of exercise; to argue for practice; to propound and discuss in a mock court.
    First a case is appointed to be mooted by certain young men, containing some doubtful controversy. Sir T. Elyot.
Moot intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To argue or plead in a supposed case.
    There is a difference between mooting and pleading; between fencing and fighting. B. Jonson.
Moot noun
Etymology
AS. mot, gemot, a meeting; -- usually in comp.
Definitions
  1. A meeting for discussion and deliberation; esp., a meeting of the people of a village or district, in Anglo-Saxon times, for the discussion and settlement of matters of common interest; -- usually in composition; as, folk-moot. J. R. Green.
  2. From Moot, v. A discussion or debate; especially, a discussion of fictitious causes by way of practice.
    The pleading used in courts and chancery called moots. Sir T. Elyot.
Moot adjective
Definitions
  1. Subject, or open, to argument or discussion; undecided; debatable; mooted.

Webster 1913