mullock

American  

[muhl-uhk] / ˈmʌl ək /

noun

1. (in Australasia) refuse or rubbish, as rock or earth, from a mine; muck.

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idioms

1. poke mullock at, to ridicule.

mullock British  

/ ˈmʌlək /

noun

1. waste material from a mine

2. dialect a mess or muddle

3. informal to ridicule

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• mullocky
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of mullock

1350–1400; originally dialectal English; Middle English mullok, equivalent to mul dust, mold, rubbish (compare Old English myl dust; vowel perhaps from Middle English mullen; see mull ⁴) + -ok -ock

Example Sentences

He was very unsociable, seldom speaking, whether drunk or sober; but a weary, hard-up sundowner was always pretty certain to get a meal and a shake-down at Bogg's lonely but among the mullock heaps.

From While the Billy Boils by Lawson, Henry

There was nothing the matter with Rum-Enough but a dislike of shifting mullock if he could get anyone to shift it for him.

From The Black Opal by Prichard, Katharine Susannah

They went to work as soon as it was dawn, in order to get mullock cleared away and dirt-winding over before the heat of the day began.

From The Black Opal by Prichard, Katharine Susannah

Without the quiver of a nerve I swung down their deepest shafts in the big bucket on the end of a rope attached to a rough windlass, which brought up the miners and the mullock.

From My Brilliant Career by Franklin, Miles

But when they saw awr Mary,    They made a mullock on it, For they thowt 'at all them flaars    Had been put on Mary's bonnet.

From Yorkshire Lyrics Poems written in the Dialect as Spoken in the West Riding of Yorkshire. To which are added a Selection of Fugitive Verses not in the Dialect by Hartley, John