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maul

 - 4 dictionary results

maul

  [mawl]
Use maul in a Sentence
–noun
1. a heavy hammer, as for driving stakes or wedges.
2. Archaic. a heavy club or mace.
–verb (used with object)
3. to handle or use roughly: The book was badly mauled by its borrowers.
4. to injure by a rough beating, shoving, or the like; bruise: to be mauled by an angry crowd.
5. to split with a maul and wedge, as a wooden rail.
Also, mall.

Origin:
1200–50; (n.) ME malle < OF mail mallet, hammer < L malleus hammer; (v.) ME mallen < OF maillier, deriv. of n.

Related forms:
mauler, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To maul
maul   (môl)   


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n.  

  1. also mall (môl)

    1. A heavy, long-handled hammer used especially to drive stakes, piles, or wedges.

    2. A heavy hammer having a wedge-shaped head and used for splitting logs.

    3. A play in Rugby in which a mass of players gathers around a ball carrier being tackled and attempts to gain possession of the ball when it is released.

    4. The mass of players during such a play.

  2. Sports

    1. A play in Rugby in which a mass of players gathers around a ball carrier being tackled and attempts to gain possession of the ball when it is released.

    2. The mass of players during such a play.

tr.v.   mauled also malled, maul·ing also mall·ing, mauls also malls

  1. To injure by or as if by beating: The boxer mauled the other fighter. The critics mauled the novelist's first effort. See Synonyms at batter1.

  2. To handle roughly: The package was mauled by the careless messenger.

  3. To split (wood) with a maul and wedge.


[Middle English malle, from Old French mail, from Latin malleus; see melə- in Indo-European roots.]
maul'er n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

maul  (v.)
c.1240, meallen "strike with a heavy weapon," from M.E. mealle (c.1240) "mace, wooden club, heavy hammer," from O.Fr. mail (see mallet). The meaning "damage seriously, shatter, mangle" is first recorded 1692.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Bible Dictionary

Maul

an old name for a mallet, the rendering of the Hebrew mephits (Prov. 25:18), properly a war-club.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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