a crude mole

[meliss]

Hi. What is that "crude mole", please? I hardly imagine the scene.

The enemy has taken refuge on the three mountains called Black Beards. "Beard number two was separated by a cavernous rift from the only spot upon which sufficient siege elements could be assembled. Under Alexander’s direction, however, the soldiers working in shifts succeeded in dumping into the chasm such tonnage of boulders and cartloads of soil and brush that by the fourth dawn the interval had been built up enough for a crude mole to be laid across its spine. By this time the engineers, assisted by hundreds of carpenters and mechanics drafted from the ranks to assist, had put together a rolling siege tower, seventy feet high, shielded by hide-faced mantlets, and had rigged a system of tackle and cables by which it could be warped across the gap and thrown against the face of the cliff."

(The Afghan Campaign by Steven Pressfield)

 

[Tarheel]

I would guess it's something you lay down so a wheeled vehicle can be run over it.

 

[SoothingDave]

Did you consider using a dictionary?

"a large solid structure on a shore serving as a pier, breakwater, or causeway."

 

[emsr2d2]

What is that a "crude mole", please? I can hardly imagine the scene.

Note my corrections above. Whenever you don't understand a phrase, look each individual word up on OneLook and read all the possible definitions. Try to see if any of them fits your context. Once you've done that, you can always come to us to see if we agree or disagree with your findings. We're not here to replace dictionaries. It was almost three hours before someone gave you the answer to your question, with a dictionary definition to back it up. Don't you think it would have been faster for you to do your own dictionary research first?

 

[meliss]

Did you consider using a dictionary?

"a large solid structure on a shore serving as a pier, breakwater, or causeway."

Sure, I used it and I saw this definition. There is no shore there, in Afghan moutains.

 

[SoothingDave]

You have to understand that the meaning of words are sometimes stretched.
Dictionaries can't capture every nuance or usage. Did you not understand that it conveyed the idea of something being built to cross across something?

"Mole" probably isn't the right word. They basically built a bridge. Maybe this author was just trying to use an old fashioned word to show how smart he is.

Isn't this the guy mixing modern slang into his stories of ancient wars?

 

[probus]

I might have guessed that the problem stemmed from the difficulties of translating from ancient Greek, but we have seen enough of these to convince me that the problem is the author, Steven Pressfield. Again and again we have seen him misusing words, attempting to give them meanings that no dictionary recognizes.

 

[Piscean]

They basically built a bridge.

I suspect from the context that they filled the map with solid material with no openings.

 

[SoothingDave]

Yes, I understood that. I was unclear of the definition of "bridge," which isn't the right word either, since the definition does include being able to cross under it.

 

[meliss]

Note my corrections above. Whenever you don't understand a phrase, look each individual word up on OneLook and read all the possible definitions. Try to see if any of them fits your context. Once you've done that, you can always come to us to see if we agree or disagree with your findings. We're not here to replace dictionaries. It was almost three hours before someone gave you the answer to your question, with a dictionary definition to back it up. Don't you think it would have been faster for you to do your own dictionary research first?

I do post my questions only after have read all the possible definitions and tried to see if any of them fits my context. And I ask not about "a crude mole", but the mole in my text. No definition fits. Or I didn't find the right one. And then I ask. Sorry to disturb you.

 

[emsr2d2]

I do post my questions only after have read all the possible definitions and tried to see if any of them fits my context. And I ask not about "a crude mole", but the mole in my text. No definition fits. Or I didn't find the right one. And then I ask. Sorry to disturb you.

OK, but in future, please make it clear in post #1 that you have consulted several dictionaries (tell us which ones) and haven't found a definition that fits. That way we know you've done your own work first.