moth-ball

moth-ball (plural moth-balls)

1. Alternative form of mothball.
   • 1907, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Seats of the Haughty”, in Heart of the West, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company for Review of Reviews Co., →OCLC, page 82:

     Me and Solly, as I now called him, prepared to shake off our moth-balls and wing our way against the arc-lights of the joyous and tuneful East.

     A figurative use.

   • 1914 February, Sinclair Lewis, “He Becomes Mildly Religious and Highly Literary”, in Our Mr. Wrenn: The Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man, New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC, pages 213–214:

     The church interior was as comfortable as Sunday-morning toast and marmalade— […] and a general polite creaking of ladies' best strays and gentlemen's stiff shirt-bosoms, and an odor of the best cologne and moth-balls.