mallet
Americannoun
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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.
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the wooden implement used to strike the balls in croquet.
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Polo. the long-handled stick, or club, used to drive the ball.
noun
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a tool resembling a hammer but having a large head of wood, copper, lead, leather, etc, used for driving chisels, beating sheet metal, etc
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a long stick with a head like a hammer used to strike the ball in croquet or polo
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a very large powerful steam locomotive with a conventional boiler but with two separate articulated engine units
Etymology
Origin of mallet
1375–1425; late Middle English maillet < Middle French, equivalent to mail maul + -et -et
Explanation
A mallet is a tool with a large, barrel-shaped, head — used to pound on something. You might use a mallet to strike an instrument or in playing croquet. Yeah, right. A mallet is a long-handled implement with a barrel-shaped head used in games like croquet or polo. In music, a mallet is a stick with a rounded end that is sometimes padded, used to strike percussion instruments like timpani, bells, or a marimba. Use your yarn or rubber mallets to play the marimba, and use your wooden mallets to play the xylophone.
Vocabulary lists containing mallet
100 Great Words from "Fahrenheit 451" -- Part I Vocabulary
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Chains
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The Shining
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
A recruitment drive has been launched at the annual Dairy Show, held at the Royal Bath and West Showground near Shepton Mallet in Somerset.
From BBC • Oct. 3, 2024
"We can see how much more vulnerable it is," says Dr Robbie Mallet, of the University of Manitoba, who is based on the Antarctic peninsula.
From BBC • Sep. 16, 2023
In another swimming-related episode, Ryan Mallet, a former N.F.L. quarterback, drowned on Tuesday in Destin, Fla., after emergency medical workers responded to assist six swimmers who struggled to make it back to shore.
From New York Times • Jun. 30, 2023
Mr. Bailey left before the video was taken, though one aide who received a lesser honor on the same list, Ben Mallet, does make an appearance.
From New York Times • Jun. 19, 2023
This arrangement by no means satisfied Mallet, whose real motive, I believe, was an idea, that if I were dead, he might persuade or terrify her into a marriage with himself.
From The Mysterious Wanderer, Vol. III A Novel in Three Volumes by Reeve, Sophia
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
