The Collaborative International Dictionary
Mooncalf \Moon"calf`\, n.
A monster; a false conception; a mass of fleshy matter, generated in the uterus.
A dolt; a stupid fellow.
--Dryden.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context now rare English) An abnormal mass within the uterus; a false conception. (from 16th c.) 2 A poorly-conceived idea or plan. (from 17th c.) 3 A dreamer, someone absent-minded or distracted; a fool, simpleton. (from 17th c.)
Wikipedia
A mooncalf (or moon-calf) is the abortive fetus of a cow or other farm animal. The term was occasionally applied to an abortive human fetus.
The term derives from the formerly widespread superstition, present in many European folk traditions, that such malformed creatures were the product of the sinister influence of the Moon on fetal development.
Usage examples of "mooncalf".
Their sturdy little forms--ever so much shorter and thicker than the mooncalf herds--were scattered up the slope in a way that was eloquent of indecision.
South, for I had in me no mind to go as a mooncalf, with no mother-wit to sustain me.
A thousand endearments crowded his mind, and he realized ruefully that he was every bit the mooncalf that he had accused McKenna of being the previous day.
Chapter 11 The Mooncalf Pastures So we two poor terrestrial castaways, lost in that wild-growing moon jungle, crawled in terror before the sounds that had come upon us.
We crawled, as it seemed, a long time before we saw either Selenite or mooncalf, though we heard the bellowing and gruntulous noises of these latter continually drawing nearer to us.
The quality of his motion during the instant of his passing suggested haste and a certain anger, and soon after we had lost sight of him we heard the bellow of a mooncalf change abruptly into a short, sharp squeal followed by the scuffle of its acceleration.
From a partially divided carcass of a mooncalf that we presently saw, I am inclined to believe it must have been mooncalf flesh.
Their use of goads--in all probability mooncalf goads--the lack of imagination they show in expecting us to be able to do just what they can do, their indisputable brutality, all seem to point to something of that sort.
A number of very thick-looking crowbars lay about the floor, and had apparently assisted to turn the dead mooncalf over on its side.
I had realised that we might work from mooncalf to mooncalf up the cave until we were near enough to charge home.
For drink we must take snow, and if we feel the need of food, we must kill a mooncalf if we can, and eat such flesh as it has--raw--and so each will go his own way.
Selenite appointed to be a minder of mooncalves is from his earliest years induced to think and live mooncalf, to find his pleasure in mooncalf lore, his exercise in their tending and pursuit.
His thoughts are of mooncalf pastures, and his dialect an accomplished mooncalf technique.
Endymion, dazzled at the outset by Charis, had fallen violently in love with her, and was behaving, as even his doting parent was obliged to own, like a mooncalf, bestowing every degree of attention upon Charis, gazing adoringly at her, positively sitting in her pocket, and showing alarming signs of trying to fix his interest with her.
Our mooncalf swears that she did see Raena standing naked on the back garden wall, and then she turned herself into a big raven and flew off.