1563 L. Humphrey sig. Vviv That they be not forced to sue the lawe, wrapped with so infinite crickes and moot poyntes.

1577 R. Stanyhurst Treat. Descr. Irelande ii. f. 9/2, in R. Holinshed I The like question [sc. whether ‘fish’ or ‘flesh’] may be mooued of the sell [= seal], and if it were well canuassed, it would be found at the least wyse a moote case.

a1650 S. D'Ewes (1845) (modernized text) I. 240 I was scarce come into commons, but..I was set at work, arguing a moot -point or law-case on Thursday night after supper.

1658–9 in T. Burton (1828) III. 46 Jersey is part of France; so it is a moot point whether a habeas corpus lies.

1732–3 Sir C. Wogan in J. Swift (1824) XVII. 460 ‘My lords and gentlemen’, says he, ‘it is a very moot point to which of those causes we may ascribe the universal dulness of the Irish.’

1779 G. Washington Let. 20 Mar. in (1840) VI. ii. 204 The policy of our arming slaves is in my opinion a moot point, unless the enemy set the example.

1797 XII. 271/2 Particular times are appointed for the arguing moot-cases .

1808 II. 78 If a statute of the United States were to adopt a common law phrase, in the creation of an offence, no common law consequences would follow, because we have no common law. But this is a moot point.

1876 A. D. Murray 110 It remains a moot problem to be guessed at.

1899 10 190 Those who are already well informed in essentials and quite prepared to discuss moot and difficult points.

1932 P. G. Wodehouse 77 An age full..of Moot Questions—some mooter than others.

1956 G. Durrell x. 199 Whether he could have bitten us successfully..was rather a moot point , but it was not the sort of experiment I cared to make.