MULE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Mule

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noun

Mule n.

1.

(Zool.) A hybrid animal; specifically, one generated between an ass and a mare. Sometimes the term is applied to the offspring of a horse and a she-ass, but that hybrid is more properly termed a hinny. See Hinny. Note: Mules are much used as draught animals. They are hardy, and proverbial for stubbornness.

2.

(Bot.) A plant or vegetable produced by impregnating the pistil of one species with the pollen or fecundating dust of another; called also hybrid.

3.

A very stubborn person.

4.

A machine, used in factories, for spinning cotton, wool, etc., into yarn or thread and winding it into cops; called also jenny and mule-jenny.

5.

A slipper that has no fitting around the heel.

Synonyms: mules, scuff, scuffs.

Mule armadillo (Zool.), a long-eared armadillo (Tatusia hybrida), native of Buenos Ayres; called also mulita.

Mule deer (Zool.), a large deer (Cervus macrotis syn. Cariacus macrotis) of the Western United States. The name refers to its long ears.

Mule pulley (Mach.), an idle pulley for guiding a belt which transmits motion between shafts that are not parallel.

Mule twist, cotton yarn in cops, as spun on a mule; in distinction from yarn spun on a throstle frame.

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Etymology of 'Mule'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Mule" Quotes from Famous Books

... balanced upon their heads, the perspiration streaming down their faces from the combined effects of the sun and their load. The last of the party was a stout man, apparently some five-and-forty years of age, dressed in a jacket and breeches of coarse brown cloth, and seated sideways on a scraggy mule, in such a position that his back was to the guard-house as he passed it. On the opposite side of the animal hung a pannier, containing cabbages and other vegetables; the unsold residue of the rider's stock in trade. ...

— Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366, April, 1846 • Various

... present says that the men straggled along sullenly: the soldiers, mule-trains, carts, wagons, guns, and crying villagers, women, and children in a ...

— The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 27, May 13, 1897 - A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls • Various

... that they can govern a country at the bayonet's edge in such a way that she has neither the weight of an equal nor the freedom of a dependency? Lord Rosebery, whose liberalism may be described in the same terms as those in which Disraeli denounced the Conservatism of Peel—"the mule of politics which engenders nothing"—has more than once in the last few years declared his hostility to the principle of Irish self-government, and the explanation of his position which he offers is that the absence of loyalty on the part of Ireland is the obstacle ...

— Ireland and the Home Rule Movement • Michael F. J. McDonnell

... suffer the desecration of the hallowed words; and Dylks shrank from his eyes of fierce rebuke. "Stand away from him," he added to the guards. "Now, then, have you folks got any other charge against him? Has he stolen anything? Like a mule, for instance? Has he robbed a hen-roost? Has he assaulted anybody, or set a tobacco-shed on fire? Some one must make a charge; I don't much care what ...

— The Leatherwood God • William Dean Howells

... glowing with a hundred fires, and the men and teams moving about among them like spectres. Morning came, and the teams were loaded, and the men ready to march. The teams drove out and formed a line reaching down 14th street from our camp nearly to the White House! One hundred and five six-mule teams constituted the train for our regimental baggage; and so much dissatisfaction prevailed among certain company officers that we were allowed twenty-five more teams next day! Rain had fallen nearly all night, and the prospect looked dreary. As ...

— Three Years in the Sixth Corps • George T. Stevens

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