mule

¹

[myool]

noun

1. the sterile offspring of a female horse and a male donkey, valued as a work animal, having strong muscles, a body shaped like a horse, and donkeylike long ears, small feet, and sure-footedness.

2. any hybrid between the donkey and the horse.

3. Informal.,  a very stubborn person.

4. Botany.,  any sterile hybrid.

5. Biology.,  a hybrid, especially one between the canary and some other finch.

6. Slang.,  a person paid to carry or transport contraband, especially drugs, for a smuggler.

7. a small locomotive used for pulling rail cars, as in a coal yard or on an industrial site, or for towing, as of ships through canal locks.

8. Also called spinning mule. a machine for spinning cotton or other fibers into yarn and winding the yarn on spindles.

9. Nautical.,  a large triangular staysail set between two masts and having its clew set well aft.

10. Numismatics.,  a hybrid coin having the obverse of one issue and the reverse of the succeeding issue, or vice versa.

mule

²

[myool]

noun

1. a lounging slipper that covers the toes and instep or only the instep.

2. a woman's shoe resembling this.

mule

¹

/ mjuːl /

noun

1. the sterile offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, used as a beast of burden Compare hinny 1

2. any hybrid animal

   a mule canary

3. Also called: spinning mule. a machine invented by Samuel Crompton that spins cotton into yarn and winds the yarn on spindles

4. informal,  an obstinate or stubborn person

5. slang,  a person who is paid to transport illegal drugs for a dealer

mule

²

/ mjuːl /

noun

1. a backless shoe or slipper

Word History and Origins

Origin of mule¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English, from Old French, from Latin mūla “mule” (feminine); replacing Old English mūl, from Latin mūlus (masculine)

Origin of mule²

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English mule, moule “sore spot on the heel, chilblain,” perhaps from Middle Dutch mūle

Word History and Origins

Origin of mule¹

C13: from Old French mul, from Latin mūlus ass, mule

Origin of mule²

C16: from Old French from Latin mulleus a magistrate's shoe

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. forty acres and a mule, a broken or unfulfilled promise, especially one with unjust, long-term consequences: an allusion to the parcels of farmland that formerly enslaved African Americans were promised and given after the Civil War and then had taken away from them.

   The protesters chanted their demand, “Real action, real justice, no forty acres and a mule.”

see stubborn as a mule.

Example Sentences

Santa Catalina Island’s mule deer are back in the crosshairs.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Either way, the coyotes found a ready food source in the fawn of mule deer, which themselves have a controversial history on the island.

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The bank said it froze the account immediately after Anjali's complaint and helped her file a police case and trace the mule account-holder.

Read more on BBC

Eli was experiencing life-threatening colic, the agency said on X. Station 18 stepped in when the mule’s owners were unable to get him to stand.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

This was no low-level mule who ferried drugs on his person, but a state attorney general who had facilitated cartel smuggling for years.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• burro 
• horse