mule

1
[ myool ]
See synonyms for: mulemules on Thesaurus.com

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.: Compare hinny.

  2. any hybrid between the donkey and the horse.

  1. Informal. a very stubborn person.

  2. Botany. any sterile hybrid.

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

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

  5. 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.

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

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

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

Idioms about mule

  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.”

Origin of mule

1
First recorded before 1000; Middle English, from Old French, from Latin mūla “mule” (feminine); replacing Old English mūl, from Latin mūlus (masculine)

Words Nearby mule

Other definitions for mule (2 of 2)

mule2
[ myool ]

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

  2. a woman's shoe resembling this.

Origin of mule

2
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English mule, moule “sore spot on the heel, chilblain,” perhaps from Middle Dutch mūle

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use mule in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for mule (1 of 2)

mule1

/ (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

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

  2. informal an obstinate or stubborn person

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

Origin of mule

1
C13: from Old French mul, from Latin mūlus ass, mule

British Dictionary definitions for mule (2 of 2)

mule2

/ (mjuːl) /


noun
  1. a backless shoe or slipper

Origin of mule

2
C16: from Old French from Latin mulleus a magistrate's shoe

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

Other Idioms and Phrases with mule

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.