moat

1. (business, figurative) An aspect of a business which makes it more "defensible" from competitors, because of the nature of its products, services or franchise or for some other reason.Examples: "No matter how good your company's product is or how quickly the industry is growing, if there is no moat, competitors will invade your castle and burn it down."; "“I think ‘moats’ are lame,” Mr. Musk had said during a Tesla earnings call. It was a criticism of an economic principle that Mr. Buffett had coined in 1999 and that has become something of a mantra for his faithful: Invest in businesses “that have wide, sustainable moats around them.”"; "Moreover, where older firms might have to stave off competitors and engage in practices like predatory pricing to keep the competition at bay, platform monopolies have a built-in moat. Since a platform’s value comes from its number of users—a phenomenon known as the network effect—competing against large platforms is nigh impossible since its monopoly position makes it inherently more useful."figuratively

2. (meteorology) A clear ring outside the eyewall of a tropical cyclone.

3. (obsolete) A hill or mound.obsolete