molehill
Sign in to saveAlso known as mole mound, mole-hill
thumb|Several lines of molehills in the pasture. thumb|Trail of Mole (animal)|mole pass of molehills at [[Kasori Shell Mound, Chiba city]] A molehill (or mole-hill, mole mound) is a conical mound of loose soil raised by small burrowing mammals, including moles, but also similar animals such as mole-rats, and voles. The word is first recorded in the first half of the 15th century. Formerly, the hill was known as a 'wantitump', a word still in dialect use for centuries afterwards.
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- waste dump
- Material used
- soil
- Creator
- Talpa europaea
- Image
- Maulwurf (Talpa).jpg
Show 1 more fact
- Commons category
- Molehills
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
3 sectionsContents
- Evidence of burrows
- Gallery: a mole emerging
- References
thumb|Several lines of molehills in the pasture. thumb|Trail of Mole (animal)|mole pass of molehills at [[Kasori Shell Mound, Chiba city]] A molehill (or mole-hill, mole mound) is a conical mound of loose soil raised by small burrowing mammals, including moles, but also similar animals such as mole-rats, and voles. The word is first recorded in the first half of the 15th century. Formerly, the hill was known as a 'wantitump', a word still in dialect use for centuries afterwards.
The phrase "making a mountain out of a molehill" is commonly used metaphorically to mean "to exaggerate a minor problem".
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “molehill” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.