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Muller
Definitions
- 1 A surname from German [in turn originating as an occupation].
"“In the past you had to pick your battles, you had limited resources and limited attorneys, so you picked the things that you thought would have the biggest stakes,” Muller said. Now, election litigators don’t have to be so “choosy.”"
- 1 One who, or that which, mulls.; A person who mulls wine or other alcoholic beverages.
- 2 A machine that mixes clay and sand under a roller for use in preparing a mould for metal casting.
"The muller can easily plow through any sand mixture that I put in it and has plenty of power left over."
- 3 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.
"The muller provides, in addition, a useful means of comparing the important property of the rate of strength development of pigments."
- 4 a vessel in which wine is mulled wordnet
- 5 One who, or that which, mulls.; A vessel in which wine, etc., is mulled over a fire.
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- 6 A device used for crushing or grinding. broadly
- 7 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 wordnet
- 8 a reflective thinker characterized by quiet contemplation wordnet
- 1 To grind up (something) into, or as if into, powder. colloquial, obsolete, rare, transitive
"The mixing is conducted in a water-bath, and during this process, and as long as the phosphorus is being ground or ‘mullered,’ copious fumes are evolved."
- 2 To destroy (something); to ruin, to wreck. UK, slang, transitive
- 3 To cut down or reduce the height of (a top hat). UK, obsolete, slang, transitive
- 4 To beat or thrash (someone). UK, slang, transitive
"We walked down to the golf club to get a beer; they readily agreed as we went, it had been a dreadful game. Macca [Steve McMahon] asked Gazza [Paul Gascoigne], had he heard? – they were getting ‘mullered’ back home. […] Gazza said he wasn’t surprised, it was fair enough – and Macca said the same. He said he didn’t mind getting trashed, when they’d played a lousy game – what he hated was getting trashed for two weeks solid beforehand, when the Cup hadn’t even started."
- 5 To utterly defeat or outplay (a sportsperson, a team, etc.); to destroy, to thrash, to trounce. UK, often, slang, transitive
Etymology
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.
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.
Borrowed from German Müller (“miller”). Doublet of Miller.
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