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MULE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Hybrid offspring of a male donkey and a female horse; usually sterile
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("mule" is a kind of...):
equid; equine (hoofed mammals having slender legs and a flat coat with a narrow mane along the back of the neck)
Holonyms ("mule" is a member of...):
Equus; genus Equus (type genus of the Equidae: only surviving genus of the family Equidae)
Derivation:
muleteer (a worker who drives mules)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A slipper that has no fitting around the heel
Synonyms:
mule; scuff
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("mule" is a kind of...):
carpet slipper; slipper (low footwear that can be slipped on and off easily; usually worn indoors)
Context examples:
She feared for William; by no means convinced by all that he could relate of his own horsemanship in various countries, of the scrambling parties in which he had been engaged, the rough horses and mules he had ridden, or his many narrow escapes from dreadful falls, that he was at all equal to the management of a high-fed hunter in an English fox-chase; nor till he returned safe and well, without accident or discredit, could she be reconciled to the risk, or feel any of that obligation to Mr. Crawford for lending the horse which he had fully intended it should produce.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Yet it goes hard with you that you should darken one side, when with both open you can scarce tell a horse from a mule.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I hired two mules, with a guide, to show me the way, and carry my small baggage.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Mule deer birth rates peak shortly before the peak of annual plant growth, when food sources are increasing.
(Tracking Deer by NASA Satellite, NASA)
I afterwards hired a mule, as the more sure-footed and least liable to receive injury on these rugged roads.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
A white mule with red trappings, led by a varlet, carried Sir Nigel's own napery and table comforts.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Mule deer populations are closely monitored and counted by biologists and land managers, in part to determine population trends over time, which helps them set the proper number of hunting permits to issue.
(Tracking Deer by NASA Satellite, NASA)
There were some six thousand of us, with the prince and his knights, and the feather-bed upon a sutler's mule in the centre.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
So by measuring the greenness of the mule deer habitat, scientists were able to mark the beginning and peak of the plant growing season – and the fawning season.
(Tracking Deer by NASA Satellite, NASA)
Have Pommers ready at mid-day with my sycamore lance, and place my harness on the sumpter mule.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
