mullock

American  

[muhl-uhk] / ˈmʌl ək /

noun

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

---

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

---

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

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

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

It wouldn't matter to them any more whether they brought up knobbies or mullock; they'd have their wages—like bullocks have their hay.

From The Black Opal by Prichard, Katharine Susannah

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 Lawson, Henry

Downy dropped from the slabs placed across from drive to drive into the bottom, and going on his knees threw aside the lumps of mullock indicated by the boy.

From The Gold-Stealers A Story of Waddy by Dyson, Edward