moly

plural molies

1. Greekcountableuncountablehuman sciencesA magic herb or plant used by Odysseus to overcome Circe.

   It excels Homers moly, cures this, falling sickness, and almost all other infirmities.

   1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 4, member 1, subsection iii

   3 more examples

   Or, propt on beds of amaranth and moly, / How sweet (while warm airs lull us, blowing lowly,)

   1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “The Lotos-Eaters”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 114

   So spoke the Radiant One; then gave me the magic herb, pulling it from the ground and showing me in what form it grew; its root was black, its flower milk-white. Its name among the gods is moly.

   1980, Homer, translated by Walter Shrewing, The Odyssey, Oxford, published 1998, page 120

   I would need all the secret herbs of Dicte […] . I would need as well the rest of my moly stores.

   2018, Madeline Miller, Circe, Bloomsbury 2019, p. 113

2. countableuncountableAny plant associated with the mythological moly, especially the European allium, Allium moly.

1. informaluncountableMolybdenum.

   The fuselage and tail unit were constructed of welded chrome-moly steel tubing, fabric covered, with two seats in one elongated open 'bathtub' cockpit.

   1990, John Wegg, General Dynamics Aircraft and Their Predecessors, page 55

2. slanguncountableMolybdenum grease.