moat

plural moats

1. A deep, wide defensive ditch, normally filled with water, surrounding a fortified habitation.

   Synonyms: fosse

2. figurativelybusinessA characteristic of a business that enhances its resilience against competitive pressures, arising from the inherent nature of its products, services, brand, or other structural advantages.

   No matter how good your company's product is or how quickly the industry is growing, if there is no moat, competitors will invade your castle and burn it down.

   2013, John Mauldin, Jonathan Tepper, Code Red: How to Protect Your Savings From the Coming Crisis, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   “I think ‘moats’ are lame,” Mr. Musk had said during a Tesla earnings call. It was a criticism of an economic principle that Mr. Buffett had coined in 1999 and that has become something of a mantra for his faithful: Invest in businesses “that have wide, sustainable moats around them.”

   2018 May 7, Andrew Ross Sorkin, quoting Elon Musk, “Elon Musk Wants to Fill Warren Buffett’s ‘Moat’ With Candy, but It Still Holds Water”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Moreover, where older firms might have to stave off competitors and engage in practices like predatory pricing to keep the competition at bay, platform monopolies have a built-in moat. Since a platform’s value comes from its number of users—a phenomenon known as the network effect—competing against large platforms is nigh impossible since its monopoly position makes it inherently more useful.

   2023 November 28, JS Tan, “It's All Bullshit”, in The Baffler

3. A circular lowland between a resurgent dome and the walls of the caldera surrounding it.
4. climatologyA clear ring outside the eyewall of a tropical cyclone.
5. obsoleteA hill or mound.

present singular third person moats · participle present moating · participle past moated · past moated

1. transitiveTo surround with a moat.

plural Moats

1. A surname.