half-moon

plural half-moons · alternative halfmoon · alternative half moon

1. The moon in its first or last quarter when only half the visible face is illuminated; a quarter moon.

   ‘Thank God we’ll have hit a bit of moon,’ Arthur Ashby remarked, glancing at the half-moon that had appeared through a break in the scudding dark clouds.

   1961, Tom Mead, Killers of Eden, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 159

2. Anything shaped like a crescent, especially the base of a fingernail.
3. A semicircular or crescent-shaped Filipino butter cookie.
4. Synonym of black and white (“type of cookie”).

   Synonyms: black and white