Mullock
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Rubbish, waste matter. UK, dialectal, uncountable, usually
- 2 Mining waste or ore processing waste:; Overburden: waste material generated while searching for minerals or while mining, such as when sinking a shaft. Australia, New-Zealand, uncountable, usually
- 3 Mining waste or ore processing waste:; Tailings: waste rock from which the wanted gold, minerals, opal, etc., has been extracted. Australia, New-Zealand, uncountable, usually
"1875, New Zealand House of Representatives, Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives of New Zealand, Volume 2, page 30, The gold, both in the quartz and mullock, is very fine, and, owing to the soft and ferruginous nature of the stuff, specks can but very rarely be seen during working."
- 4 Nonsense, rubbish. uncountable, usually
- 5 A mess; the result of a blunder. UK, Yorkshire, dialectal, uncountable, usually
"For when they saw awr Mary, / They made a mullock on it, / For they thowt 'at all them flaars / Had been put on Mary's bonnet."
- 1 To clear waste material out of a mine. transitive
Example
More examples"1875, New Zealand House of Representatives, Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives of New Zealand, Volume 2, page 30, The gold, both in the quartz and mullock, is very fine, and, owing to the soft and ferruginous nature of the stuff, specks can but very rarely be seen during working."
Etymology
From mull + -ock.
Related phrases
More for "mullock"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.