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. Compare hinny ( def ).
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. a backless shoe or slipper

mule

²

/ mjuːl /

noun

1. See hinny
   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 calledspinning 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

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

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

Origin of mule²

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

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.”

More idioms and phrases containing mule

see stubborn as a mule .

Example Sentences

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.

From Outside Online

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.

From Outside Online

While 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.

From Popular-Science

That you don’t have to be somebody’s emotional or spiritual mule to be worthy of love.

From Ozy

The company was working on military contracts, and BigDog was supposed to be a sort of pack mule for soldiers.

From Singularity Hub 

He weighed only 185 pounds, but he had killer instincts and rabbit quickness and the stamina of a mule.

From The Daily Beast

He took the left one and, with a pile driver of a mule kick, almost ripped it off its hinges.

From The Daily Beast

Those players called Robinson “Mule” because he worked them hard as pack animals.

From The Daily Beast

In some places we want cows but not bison, or mule deer but not coyotes, or cars but not elk.

From The Daily Beast

Steadily, our gunman pushed forward, his mule high-stepping through brush.

From The Daily Beast

At this moment the tinkling of a mule's bells, mingled with the song of the muleteer, came on the air.

From Project Gutenberg

Massed on the plateau above the mule-path, the whole population of the village stood to watch them down the steep descent.

From Project Gutenberg

On crossing it for the first time, I perceived lying about me half putrid cats and dogs—and even a mule in the same state.

From Project Gutenberg

He drives a white mule, and has managed to put a top of sail cloth on an old ramshackle buggy, which he calls a 'shay.'

From Project Gutenberg

I took my own saddle ashore: and being mounted on a fine mule, we all began our journey towards the hill.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• amalgam
• combination