mule
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /mjuːl/
ipa: /mjuːəl/
ipa: /mjʉl/
ipa: /mjuːəl/
ipa: /mjuwəɫ/
rhymes: -uːl
homophone: mewl
Forms: form: mules
Etymology: From Middle English mule, from Anglo-Norman mule and Old English mūl, both from Latin mūlus, from Proto-Indo-European *mukslós. Compare Late Latin muscellus (“young he-mule”), Old East Slavic мъшкъ (mŭškŭ, “mule”), Ancient Greek (Phocian) μυχλός (mukhlós, “he-ass”), and German Maul Maultier, Maulesel (through Latin).
Senses: examples: text: One day he ran into a herd of a half dozen elk, so he rode his mule down the canyon three or four miles, leaving the sheep alone.
ref: 2017, Robert S. McPherson, Cowboying In Canyon Country, Dog Ear Publishing, →ISBN, page 200:
glosses: The generally sterile male or female hybrid offspring of a male donkey and a female horse.
examples: text: It would be exceedingly interesting to know if the hybrid would reproduce, a matter I deem exceedingly doubtful, for the chances are it would prove a "mule" (infertile).
ref: 1922, Onnie Warren Smith, The Book of the Pike, page 187:
glosses: The generally sterile hybrid offspring of any two species of animals.
examples: text: Vegetable mules supply an irrefragable argument in favour of the sexual system of botany.
ref: 1789, Erasmus Darwin, The Loves of the Plants, J. Johnson, page 149:
text: The most extraordinary mule, however, that is asserted to have been produced on the Continent, is a cross between the cabbage and horse-radish, which Monsieur Sageret reports that he has obtained […]
ref: 1837, William Herbert, Amaryllidaceæ: Preceded by an Attempt to Arrange the Monocotyledonous Orders, and Followed by a Treatise on Cross-bred Vegetables, and Supplement, page 353:
glosses: A hybrid plant.
examples: text: "Where in the hell do you think I learned to be such a mule?”
ref: 2005, Dorothea Benton Frank, Isle of Palms, Penguin, →ISBN:
synonyms: word: donkey
word: bulldog
word: mule
glosses: A stubborn person.
examples: text: Cocaine packet ingestion (these patients referred to as “mules”) may warrant surgery, Golytely or expectant passage.
ref: 2006, “Gastroenterology: Esophageal Foreign Bodies”, in Steven E. Diaz, The Little Black Book of Emergency Medicine (Jones and Bartlett's Little Black Book Series), 2nd edition, Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, →ISBN, page 101:
text: “Yeah, in Denver, we know about Uriarte's involvement in meth. Our Las Cruces office seized over six hundred pounds of methamphetamine from two of his mules last year.”
ref: 2007, Thomas G. Blacklock, Safe Zone: A Novel Approach to the Drug War, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 44:
synonyms: drug mule
glosses: A person paid to smuggle drugs.
examples: text: What is less clear, however, is why mint workers should have chosen to produce mules, if they were making forgeries […]
ref: 1988, Andrew Burnett, The Normanby hoard and other Roman coin hoards, British Museum Publications:
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
numismatics
glosses: A coin or medal minted with obverse and reverse designs not normally seen on the same piece, either intentionally or in error.
examples: text: He was in the middle of organizing his massive stash of rare and exquisite bounty, all kept safely in the inventory cache of a mule, an entirely separate character which he paid a monthly fee to maintain exclusively for that purpose.
ref: 2007, David L. McClard, Verotopia Online: The MMORPG of the Century, Xlibris, →ISBN, page 89:
qualifier: roleplaying games
glosses: A MMORPG character, or NPC companion in a tabletop RPG, used mainly to store extra inventory for the owner's primary character.
glosses: Any of a group of cocktails involving ginger ale or ginger beer, citrus juice, and various liquors.
examples: text: In heavier seas where a boat must sail a course dictated by waves, or where wave action makes power more important than pointing, the mule will prove the faster sail.
ref: 1974, Yachting, volume 135, page 60:
topics: nautical
sailing
transport
glosses: A kind of triangular sail for a yacht.
glosses: A kind of cotton-spinning machine.
Synonyms: sense: sterile hybrid of donkey and horse
word: Missouri canary
Derived terms: credit mule
development mule
grin like a mule eating briars
HM mule
kick like a mule
Missouri mule
money mule
Morgan's mule
Moscow mule
mule armadillo
muleback
mule bell
mule deer
mule fat
mule fern
mule kick
mule killer
muleless
mulelike
mule litter
mule-litter
mulelitter
muleload
muleman
mule pulley
Muleshoe
muleskin
muleskinner
mule skinner
mule spinner's cancer
mule spinners' cancer
muleteer
mule train
mule twist
muling
mulish
smile like a mule eating briars
spinning mule
stubborn as a mule
test mule
work like a mule
zebra mule
zebrule
Related terms: word: ass
word: donkey
alt: male horse × female donkey
word: hinny
word: horse