Other forms: mothballs
A mothball is a small white ball that keeps insects out of stored wool. Put mothballs in the wardrobe, the smell of mothballs, a box of mothballs.
The smell is the whole product, and it is a chemical that turns straight from solid to vapour. As a verb it means to put something into storage indefinitely, so a mothballed factory is closed but not sold.
1nounmothballA small white ball that keeps insects out of stored wool.
“Grandma's wardrobe smelled strongly of mothballs.”
mothball is a repellent.
Moth plus ball, from the balls placed among stored clothes to keep moths off.
The is derived from moth + ball. The is derived from the noun.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA