mallet

[ mal-it ]
See synonyms for mallet on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a hammerlike tool with a head commonly of wood but occasionally of rawhide, plastic, etc., used for driving any tool with a wooden handle, as a chisel, or for striking a surface.

  2. the wooden implement used to strike the balls in croquet.

  1. Polo. the long-handled stick, or club, used to drive the ball.

Origin of mallet

1
1375–1425; late Middle English maillet<Middle French, equivalent to mailmaul + -et-et

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use mallet in a sentence

  • These rudely sharpened piles were driven into the bottom by the use of heavy stone mallets.

  • When Great Head burst into the house the uncle and nephew began to hammer him vigorously with mallets.

  • Chisels, mallets, hammers, tools and weapons of all kinds from a wheel-spoke to a blunderbuss were brandished in their hands.

    The Incendiary | W. A. (William Augustine) Leahy
  • A single one of the new Mallets will do the work of the two pushers, and therein lies the economy in their use.

    The Modern Railroad | Edward Hungerford
  • The cloth and mallets were for sale, but no inducement would persuade her to part with the necklace.

    A Voyage in the 'Sunbeam' | Annie Allnut Brassey

British Dictionary definitions for mallet

mallet

/ (ˈmælɪt) /


noun
  1. a tool resembling a hammer but having a large head of wood, copper, lead, leather, etc, used for driving chisels, beating sheet metal, etc

  2. a long stick with a head like a hammer used to strike the ball in croquet or polo

  1. mainly US a very large powerful steam locomotive with a conventional boiler but with two separate articulated engine units

Origin of mallet

1
C15: from Old French maillet wooden hammer, diminutive of mail maul (n)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012