maul

[mawl]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR maul ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a heavy hammer, as for driving stakes or wedges.

Archaic. a heavy club or mace.

verb (used with object)

to handle or use roughly: The book was badly mauled by its borrowers.

to injure by a rough beating, shoving, or the like; bruise: to be mauled by an angry crowd.

to split with a maul and wedge, as a wooden rail.

Nearby words

Also mall.

Origin of maul

1200–50; (noun) Middle English malle < Old French mail mallet, hammer < Latin malleus hammer; (v.) Middle English mallen < Old French maillier, derivative of noun

Related formsmaul·er, nounun·mauled, adjective

Can be confusedmall maul maw

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for maul

With a lot of forethought, he wields an 8-pound maul through timber.
Brooklyn’s Booming Firewood Industry|Dale Eisinger|July 8, 2014|DAILY BEAST
It was probably a case of numbness; you maul your thumb with a hammer and it will hurt just so long before it stops.
Highways in Hiding|George Oliver Smith
Rude mills were then formed with a hollowed log, and a heavy weight or maul on a spring-board.
Customs and Fashions in Old New England|Alice Morse Earle
Who could have fancied that when savages began to use clubs to maul each other it would end in this diabolical refinement!
The Cruise of the Dry Dock|T. S. Stribling

The critics have therefore an undoubted right to maul you; they find you in their province.
Dialogues of the Dead|Lord Lyttelton
So I went to him and told him that if he said a word about it, I should maul him into a slop and feed him to the hogs.
Vandemark's Folly|Herbert Quick

British Dictionary definitions for maul

maul

verb (tr)

to handle clumsily; paw

to batter or lacerate

noun

a heavy two-handed hammer suitable for driving piles, wedges, etc

rugby a loose scrum that forms around a player who is holding the ball and on his feet

Derived Formsmauler, noun

Word Origin for maul

C13: from Old French mail, from Latin malleus hammer. See mallet

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

Word Origin and History for maul

maul

mid-13c., meallen "strike with a heavy weapon," from Middle English mealle (mid-13c.) "mace, wooden club, heavy hammer" (see maul (n.). The meaning "damage seriously, mangle" is first recorded 1690s. Related: Mauled; mauling.

maul

c.1200, mealle, "hammer, usually a heavy one; sledgehammer," from Old French mail "hammer," from Latin malleus "hammer" (see mallet).

maul

noun

verb (used with object)

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Origin of maul

Examples from the Web for maul

maul

verb (tr)

noun

Word Origin for maul

maul

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