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

• 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

See Examples For:

mullock

She’ll find her wits soon, Phœbe: They’re in a mullock, all turned howthery-towthery At the notion of a new mistress at Krindlesyke— She’ll come to her senses soon, and bid you welcome.

From Krindlesyke by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

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 John Hartley

The men are hard at work on these hills of "mullock," plying the windlasses by which the stuff is brought up from below, or puddling and washing off "the dirt."

From A Boy's Voyage Round the World by Samuel Smiles

Watty threw the mullock from his hide bucket as it came up, and lowered it again.

From The Black Opal by Katharine Susannah Prichard

It was Golden Gully still, but golden in name only, unless indeed the yellow mullock heaps or the bloom of the wattle-trees on the hillside gave it a claim to the title.

From While the Billy Boils by Henry Lawson