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
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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
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.
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.