peat
/piːt
/noun [mass noun]
1A brown material consisting of partly decomposed vegetable matter forming a deposit on acidic, boggy, ground, which is dried for use in gardening and as fuel: mulch plants with leaf mould or peat [as modifier]: a peat bog...
- Potting soil contains rich organic material such as peat and various composted barks.
- The route meanders up, over the rocks and then more peat bog.
- Dig materials such as straw, peat, compost, and leaves into the soil, or lay them on as mulch.
1.1 [count noun] (usually peats) A cut piece of peat: he reached forward to add a couple of peats to the fire...
- Even the locals who do cut the peats are mostly just doing it to have a big fire at New Year.
- Back into the sitting room they pulled the peats out of the fire and carried them outside on a shovel.
- I have written about peat-cutting, drying, stacking and burning for different jobs, but last week I learned of a method of stacking peats that I had never heard of before.
Derivatives
peaty
/ adjective (peatier, peatiest) ...- And then the path, quite rough and peaty, curves to a sandy beach with a view that's a treat - across the water, half a mile straight to the dam.
- It grows in abundance on the peaty moors of Scotland.
- Some years ago, while trekking over the peaty moorland of the Western Isles, I stumbled upon it quite by accident.
Origin
Middle English: from Anglo-Latin peta, perhaps of Celtic origin.