mule
1the 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.: Compare hinny.
any hybrid between the donkey and the horse.
Informal. a very stubborn person.
Botany. any sterile hybrid.
Biology. a hybrid, especially one between the canary and some other finch.
Slang. a person paid to carry or transport contraband, especially drugs, for a smuggler.
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.
Also called spinning mule . a machine for spinning cotton or other fibers into yarn and winding the yarn on spindles.
Nautical. a large triangular staysail set between two masts and having its clew set well aft.
Numismatics. a hybrid coin having the obverse of one issue and the reverse of the succeeding issue, or vice versa.
Idioms about mule
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.”
Origin of mule
1Words Nearby mule
Other definitions for mule (2 of 2)
a lounging slipper that covers the toes and instep or only the instep.
a woman's shoe resembling this.
Origin of mule
2Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use mule in a sentence
I’m a mountain person who, for some reason, enjoys climbing thousands of vertical feet by myself in the dark, so elk and mule deer were the choice for me.
Earlier this year, she got a chance to find out when she joined a bow hunt for mule deer with two rising stars of huntstagram, the social media sphere dedicated to all things hunting.
A First-Time Hunter Gets a Lesson from #WomenWhoHunt | Outside Editors | October 7, 2020 | Outside OnlineWhile relatively small burns intended to regenerate habitat—say, 100 acres to improve mule deer range—are exempt from rigorous analysis, larger projects can take years to be approved, says Van de Water.
That you don’t have to be somebody’s emotional or spiritual mule to be worthy of love.
The company was working on military contracts, and BigDog was supposed to be a sort of pack mule for soldiers.
The Robot Revolution Was Televised: Our All-Time Favorite Boston Dynamics Robot Videos | Jason Dorrier | July 19, 2020 | Singularity Hub
He weighed only 185 pounds, but he had killer instincts and rabbit quickness and the stamina of a mule.
Football Great Bob Suffridge Wanders Through the End Zone of Life | Paul Hemphill | September 6, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTHe took the left one and, with a pile driver of a mule kick, almost ripped it off its hinges.
The Night the SEALS Captured the Butcher of Fallujah | Patrick Robinson | November 11, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTThose players called Robinson “mule” because he worked them hard as pack animals.
Eddie Robinson, College Football’s Winningest Coach | Samuel G. Freedman | August 23, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTIn some places we want cows but not bison, or mule deer but not coyotes, or cars but not elk.
Why Do We Save Some Species and Let Others Get Devastated? | Melissa Holbrook Pierson | May 21, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTSteadily, our gunman pushed forward, his mule high-stepping through brush.
An Obsessive’s Search for a Lost Jungle City | Christopher S. Stewart | December 30, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTAt this moment the tinkling of a mule's bells, mingled with the song of the muleteer, came on the air.
Massed on the plateau above the mule-path, the whole population of the village stood to watch them down the steep descent.
Rosemary in Search of a Father | C. N. WilliamsonOn crossing it for the first time, I perceived lying about me half putrid cats and dogs—and even a mule in the same state.
A Woman's Journey Round the World | Ida PfeifferHe drives a white mule, and has managed to put a top of sail cloth on an old ramshackle buggy, which he calls a 'shay.'
The Cromptons | Mary J. HolmesI took my own saddle ashore: and being mounted on a fine mule, we all began our journey towards the hill.
Journal of a Voyage to Brazil | Maria Graham
British Dictionary definitions for mule (1 of 2)
/ (mjuːl) /
the sterile offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, used as a beast of burden: Compare hinny 1
any hybrid animal: a mule canary
Also called: spinning mule a machine invented by Samuel Crompton that spins cotton into yarn and winds the yarn on spindles
informal an obstinate or stubborn person
slang a person who is paid to transport illegal drugs for a dealer
Origin of mule
1British Dictionary definitions for mule (2 of 2)
/ (mjuːl) /
a backless shoe or slipper
Origin of mule
2Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with mule
see stubborn as a mule.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Browse