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MULE

[myool]

noun

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 hinny¹.

any hybrid between the donkey and the horse.

Informal. a very stubborn person.

Botany. any sterile hybrid.

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

EXPAND

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.

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

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

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

10.

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

COLLAPSE

Origin:
before 1000; Middle English < Old French < Latin mūla mule (feminine); replacing Old English mūl < Latin mūlus (masculine)

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Mule is always a great word to know.

So is lollapalooza. Does it mean:

an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.

a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.

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Example Sentences

But there the road terminates, and the only method of progression possible is on the back of a mule.

It takes six hours to hike from the canyon rim to the village, or three hours by mule.

Mule deer and black-tailed deer graze the high meadows, where black bears gorge on berries and hoary marmots sunbathe.

EXPAND

But there the road terminates, and the only method of progression possible is on the back of a mule.

It takes six hours to hike from the canyon rim to the village, or three hours by mule.

Mule deer and black-tailed deer graze the high meadows, where black bears gorge on berries and hoary marmots sunbathe.

My ancestors cussed their lives away in that soil, following a one-crop mule.

The world's first cloned mule may produce some unexpected offspring: insights into the nature of cancer.

Bernanke is trying to move a mule by pushing on the slack wet line he's holding.

Occasionally an animal-especially the abundant mule deer-trips a landmine and is destroyed.

The mule transfers the money to the crook's chosen account.

It's not so long ago that almost everyone was still a farmer, and with a horse or mule instead of a tractor.

For one of the best ways to experience the canyon, take a cowboy-guided horseback or mule trail ride into the canyon.

The car is still undergoing development, hence the test mule pics, and is slated for launch in about a year.

It took the loads from dozens of wagons and put them on a barge that could be pulled by a single mule or maybe two.

One bad step, and the mule team could run the wagons off a cliff.

Mule deer and other animals eat the tender plants that grow in its shade.

In one hand he gripped an antler from a modern mule deer.

Mountain lions seem to actively seek out mule deer infected with chronic wasting disease.

Horses will consme alot of the high nutrition shrubs and forbes that are critical parts of mule deer diets.

In the window teeters a mule in jewel-bright suede with.

Gaze up from the trout to spot mule deer or bighorn sheep in the sage hills.

Levine's designs: a velvet mule with rolled leather heel, top, and stiletto-heeled pumps.

He placed his son in the wagon, tied the mule behind it, and began his journey down the road.

Coyotes and wolves now use these travel ways to access prey such as goats and mule deer that used to be protected by deep snow".

He either resembled a bucking bronco or a stubborn mule.

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

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

a woman's shoe resembling this.

Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English: sore spot on the heel, chilblain, perhaps < Middle Dutch mūle

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To MULE

Collins

World English Dictionary

mule¹ (mjuːl)

—n
1.	Compare hinny the sterile offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, used as a beast of burden
2.	any hybrid animal: a mule canary
3.	Also called: spinning 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

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

mule² (mjuːl)

—n
	a backless shoe or slipper

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon

Main Entry:	mule
Part of Speech:	n
Definition:	See drug mule

Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon
Copyright © 2003-2012 Dictionary.com, LLC
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

mule

"offspring of donkey and horse," O.E. mul, O.Fr. mul (fem. mule), both from L. mulus (fem. mula) "a mule," probably from a pre-Latin Mediterranean language.

EXPAND

"The mule combines the strength of the horse with the endurance and surefootedness of the ass, and is extensively bred for certain employments for which it is more suited than either; it is ordinarily incapable of procreation. With no good grounds, the mule is a proverbial type of obstinacy." [OED]

Properly, the offspring of a he-ass and a mare; that of a she-ass and a stallion is technically a hinny. Used allusively of hybrids and things of mixed nature. As a type of spinning machine, attested from 1797. Meaning "stubborn person" is from 1848; that of "narcotics smuggler or courier" first attested 1935. O.Fr. mul was replaced in Fr. by dim. form mulet, hence muleteer "mule driver" (1538), from Fr. muletier.

mule

"loose slipper," 1560s, from M.Fr., from L. mulleus calceus "red high-soled shoe," worn by Roman patricians, from mullus "red" (see mullet). Related: Mules.

COLLAPSE

Slang Dictionary

mule definition

n.
someone who delivers or smuggles drugs for a drug dealer. (Drugs.) : The jerks use a twelve-year-old kid for a mule!

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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FOLDOC

Computing Dictionary

Mule definition

text, tool
A multi-lingual enhancement of GNU Emacs. Mule can handle not only ASCII characters (7 bit) and ISO Latin 1 characters (8 bit), but also 16-bit characters like Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. Mule can have a mixture of languages in a single buffer.
Mule runs under the X window system, or on a Hangul terminal, mterm or exterm.
Latest version: 2.3.
(ftp://etlport.etl.go.jp/pub/mule).
(1996-01-28)

Easton

Bible Dictionary

Mule definition

(Heb. pered), so called from the quick step of the animal or its power of carrying loads. It is not probable that the Hebrews bred mules, as this was strictly forbidden in the law (Lev. 19:19), although their use was not forbidden. We find them in common use even by kings and nobles (2 Sam. 18:9; 1 Kings 1:33; 2 Kings 5:17; Ps. 32:9). They are not mentioned, however, till the time of David, for the word rendered "mules" (R.V. correctly, "hot springs") in Gen. 36:24 (yemim) properly denotes the warm springs of Callirhoe, on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. In David's reign they became very common (2 Sam. 13:29; 1 Kings 10:25). Mules are not mentioned in the New Testament. Perhaps they had by that time ceased to be used in Palestine.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

mule

see stubborn as a mule.

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black-tailed deer catskinner Crompton dried-up drive foal

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stubborn as a mule

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Matching Quote

"You know, some of these folks look as queer in church as a mule does in the front parlor."

-Howard Estabrook

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