mound

A mound is a heap or a pile of material or objects. You can make a mound of clothes by dumping your laundry onto your bed.

The noun mound is occasionally used to mean "a hill," but it most often describes a manmade pile, like a mound of stones or a mound of sand heaped on the beach, or a mound of snow that you sculpt into a rabbit. On a baseball diamond, the pitcher's mound is the little rise on which the pitcher stands to throw the ball. As a verb, mound means to pile something into a heaped shape.

Definitions of mound
  1. noun
    a collection of objects laid on top of each other
    synonyms: agglomerate, cumulation, cumulus, heap, pile
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    types:
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    compost heap, compost pile
    a heap of manure and vegetation and other organic residues that are decaying to become compost
    dunghill, midden, muckheap, muckhill
    a heap of dung or refuse
    scrapheap
    pile of discarded metal
    shock
    a pile of sheaves of grain set on end in a field to dry; stalks of Indian corn set up in a field
    slagheap
    pile of waste matter from coal mining etc
    stack
    an orderly pile
    funeral pyre, pyre
    wood heaped for burning a dead body as a funeral rite
    woodpile
    a pile or stack of wood to be used for fuel
    stockpile
    a storage pile accumulated for future use
    hayrick, haystack, rick
    a stack of hay
    type of:
    accumulation, aggregation, assemblage, collection
    several things grouped together or considered as a whole
  2. noun
    structure consisting of an artificial heap or bank usually of earth or stones
    “they built small mounds to hide behind”
    synonyms: hill
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    examples:
    Antonine Wall
    a fortification 37 miles long across the narrowest part of southern Scotland (between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde); built in 140 to mark the frontier of the Roman province of Britain
    Great Wall of China
    a fortification 1,500 miles long built across northern China in the 3rd century BC; it averages 6 meters in width
    types:
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    barbette
    (formerly) a mound of earth inside a fort from which heavy gun can be fired over the parapet
    barrow, burial mound, grave mound, tumulus
    (archeology) a heap of earth placed over prehistoric tombs
    embankment
    a long artificial mound of stone or earth; built to hold back water or to support a road or as protection
    snow bank, snowbank
    a mound or heap of snow
    levee
    an embankment that is built in order to prevent a river from overflowing
    bulwark, rampart, wall
    an embankment built around a space for defensive purposes
    type of:
    construction, structure
    a thing constructed; a complex entity constructed of many parts
  3. noun
    (baseball) the slight elevation on which the pitcher stands
    synonyms: hill, pitcher's mound
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    type of:
    baseball equipment
    equipment used in playing baseball
  4. noun
    a small natural hill
    synonyms: hammock, hillock, hummock, knoll
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    types:
    anthill, formicary
    a mound of earth made by ants as they dig their nest
    kopje, koppie
    a small hill rising up from the African veld
    molehill
    a mound of earth made by moles while burrowing
    type of:
    hill
    a local and well-defined elevation of the land
  5. noun
    the position on a baseball team of the player who throws the ball for a batter to try to hit
    “they have a southpaw on the mound”
    synonyms: pitcher
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    type of:
    position
    (in team sports) the role assigned to an individual player
  6. verb
    form into a rounded elevation
    “mound earth”
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    types:
    mound over
    form a mound over
    type of:
    forge, form, mold, mould, shape, work
    make something, usually for a specific function
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