Standard Lemma guide

muller

name · noun · verb · 20 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈmʌlə/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈmʌləɹ/
  • rhymes with -ʌlə(ɹ)
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈmʊlə/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈmʌl-/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈmʊləɹ/
  • General-American: /ˈmʌl-/
  • rhymes with -ʊlə(ɹ)
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈmʊ-/
  • General-American: /ˈm(j)ʊ-/
  • CMU ARPABET: M AH1 L ER0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

name

Meaning 1

A surname from German [in turn originating as an occupation].

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

One who, or that which, mulls.

A person who mulls wine or other alcoholic beverages.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

One who, or that which, mulls.

A vessel in which wine, etc., is mulled over a fire.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

A machine that mixes clay and sand under a roller for use in preparing a mould for metal casting.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: engineering, metallurgy, natural-sciences, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: sand muller

Antonyms: none provided

5

noun

Meaning 5

A stone with a flat grinding surface, which is held in the hand and rubbed on a slab to grind paint pigments, medicinal powders, etc.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Qualifier: pharmacy

Topics: art, arts

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

noun

Meaning 6

A device used for crushing or grinding.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: broadly

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

verb

Meaning 7

To grind up (something) into, or as if into, powder.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: colloquial, obsolete, rare, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

8

verb

Meaning 8

To destroy (something); to ruin, to wreck.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, slang, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

9

verb

Meaning 9

To beat or thrash (someone).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, slang, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

10

verb

Meaning 10

To utterly defeat or outplay (a sportsperson, a team, etc.); to destroy, to thrash, to trounce.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, often, slang, transitive

Topics: hobbies, lifestyle, sports

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: outclass

Antonyms: none provided

11

verb

Meaning 11

To cut down or reduce the height of (a top hat).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: UK, obsolete, slang, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

12

noun

Meaning 12

a vessel in which wine is mulled

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: vessel

13

noun

Meaning 13

a heavy tool of stone or iron (usually with a flat base and a handle) that is used to grind and mix material (as grain or drugs or pigments) against a slab of stone

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: pestle, pounder

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: tool

14

noun

Meaning 14

a reflective thinker characterized by quiet contemplation

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: muser, ponderer, ruminator

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: thinker

15

noun

Meaning 15

United States geneticist who studied the effects of X-rays on genes (1890-1967)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: Hermann Joseph Muller

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: geneticist

16

noun

Meaning 16

British philologist (born in Germany) who specialized in Sanskrit (1823-1900)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: Max Muller, Friedrich Max Muller

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: philologist, philologue

17

noun

Meaning 17

German mathematician and astronomer (1436-1476)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: Johann Muller, Regiomontanus

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: astronomer, uranologist, stargazer, mathematician

18

noun

Meaning 18

German physiologist and anatomist (1801-1858)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: Johannes Peter Muller

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: anatomist, physiologist

19

noun

Meaning 19

Swiss physicist who studied superconductivity (born in 1927)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: Karl Alex Muller

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: nuclear physicist

20

noun

Meaning 20

Swiss chemist who synthesized DDT and discovered its use as an insecticide (1899-1965)

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: Paul Hermann Muller

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: chemist

History

Etymology

Borrowed from German Müller (“miller”). Doublet of Miller.

From mull (“to heat and spice, etc.”, verb) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

From mull (“to mix (clay and sand) under a roller to prepare a mould”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns). Mull is possibly derived from mull (“(chiefly Northern England) to grind to powder, crumble, powder, pulverize”), from Middle English mollen, mullen (“to moisten (something); to soften (something) by making wet; to become liquid; to drizzle; to crumble or soften (something) by grinding; to fondle or pet (something)”), from Old French moillier, muillier (“to make wet”) (modern French mouiller), and from its etymon Vulgar Latin *molliāre, *mulliāre (“to make wet”), from Latin molliāre, the present active infinitive of molliō (“to soften”), from Latin mollis (“soft”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meld- (“to melt; to soften”) or *melh2- (“to crush, grind”)) + -iō (suffix forming factitive verbs from adjectives).

The noun is derived from Late Middle English molour, moler; further origin uncertain, possibly: * from mull (“(Northern England) something reduced to fine particles”, noun) or mull (“(chiefly Northern England) to grind to powder, crumble, powder, pulverize”, verb) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns) (see etymology 2); or * from an unattested Anglo-Norman or Middle French noun, from Old French moldre, moudre (“to grind”) (modern French moudre), from Latin molere, the present active infinitive of molō (“to grind, to mill”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *melh2- (“to crush, grind”); or * a variant of mullet (“(obsolete) stone for grinding”) + -er; mullet is derived from French molette (“pestle”). The verb is derived from the noun.

Probably from Angloromani mul-, the preterite stem of mer- (“to die”) (compare mullered, mullo (“dead”, adjective); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to die; to disappear”)) + English -er (suffix forming frequentative verbs).

Borrowed from German Müller, the surname of Franz Müller (1840–1864), a German tailor who was convicted and hanged for the robbery and murder of Thomas Briggs, a British banker, on a train. Müller was found in possession of, among other things, Briggs’ top hat, which he had altered by reducing the height of the crown by half and resewing it to the brim.

Real reading context

muller in complete knowledge articles