maul

[ mawl ]

/ mɔl /

SEE 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.

Words nearby maul

mauger, maugham, maugre, maui, mauka, maul, maulana, mauldin, maulers, maulmain, maulstick

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

OTHER WORDS FROM maul

maul·er, nounun·mauled, adjective

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH maul

mall maul maw

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020

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

/ (mɔːl) /

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 forms of maul

mauler, 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