mulligan
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈmʌlɪɡən/
homophone: Mulligan
Forms: form: mulligans
Etymology: Attested since the 1930s in the sense “chance to re-take a golf stroke”; probably from the name Mulligan, after a golfer who replayed a stroke. See Wikipedia for more information.
Senses: examples: text: "I've got a mulligan on the stove upstairs," grinned Sloan, getting out of his chair.
ref: 1918 September, W. C. Tuttle, “A Rootin' Tooter”, in Boys' Life, volume 8, number 9, page 5:
text: Another afternoon Dove jungled up with four others beside a creek.[…] A couple of the boys got a mulligan going. Dove lay naked in the creek smoking a cigarette and smelling the mulligan.
ref: 1956, Nelson Algren, A Walk on the Wild Side, paperback edition, published 1998, →ISBN, pages 90–91:
text: When we did, nobody was there, but we found two empty sleeping bags and some mulligan in a pot on a stove.
ref: p. 1932, a. 1998, Erling Strom, as quoted in, 1998, Louis W. Dawson, Wild Snow, page 105 http://books.google.com/books?id=D_1_rNG1rfYC&pg=PA105&dq=mulligan
glosses: Ellipsis of mulligan stew.
examples: text: If you lose your drive in the water, take a mulligan and try again.
topics: golf
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: An unpenalized chance to re-take a stroke that went awry.
examples: text: Pokemon has a mulligan rule: if you have no Pokemon in your opening hand, you show it to your opponent and redraw. You may also take a mulligan, I believe, if your opening hand has no basic power cards.
ref: 2009 February 17, LSJ, “Re: Why doesn't VTES have a mulligan rule?”, in rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad (Usenet), message-ID <soDml.10826$hc1.10451@flpi150.ffdc.sbc.com>:
text: April 1997 introduced the modern 'Paris mulligan' rule; previously a mulligan required either all land or no land in the hand and could be taken only once, now the mulligan can be taken as many times as desired with any hand, but reduces starting hand size by one each time the mulligan is taken.
ref: 2009 June 27, Zoe Stephenson, “Magic: The Gathering Rules FAQ, v4.03 (part 2)”, in rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (Usenet), message-ID <games/magic-t-g/rules/part2_1246075912@rtfm.mit.edu>:
qualifier: collectible card games
glosses: An opportunity (sometimes penalized) for a player to reshuffle their cards and draw a new initial hand at the beginning of a game.
examples: text: Don't do poorly in your first interview; you won't get a mulligan.
text: It was a low moment when he lost to a smooth-talking Southern smart-ass like Bill Clinton—good thing he got a mulligan, sort of, when Georgie ran.
ref: 2006, Shelley Lewis, Naked Republicans, Villard, →ISBN, page 172:
text: While I too believe in investing in alternative energy resources, you don't get a mulligan when a nuclear weapon or a dirty bomb goes off.
ref: 2007, Steve Alten, The Shell Game, →ISBN, page 279:
text: I wasn't sure, but I had a hunch all I needed was a mulligan. If I could only reconnect with her somehow and begin all over again.
ref: 2008, Ross Dale, Embedded, Sourcebooks, →ISBN, page 202:
text: OK, we don’t give politicians who lost an election the opportunity for a mulligan, even when they falsely claim that the election was stolen.
ref: 2023 January 17, Paul Krugman, “Will It Be Morning in Joe Biden’s America?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
glosses: A second chance.
Related terms: mulligan car