Muller

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ÊŒlÉ™(r)

mull + -er

Full definition of muller

Noun

1. One who, or that which, mulls.
2. (arts) A grinding stone, held in the hand, used especially for preparing paints and powders.
• 1994, John Wilder Tukey, David R. Brillinger, The collected works of John W. Tukey, The muller provides, in addition, a useful means of comparing the important property of the rate of strength development of pigments.
3. A vessel in which wine, etc., is mulled over a fire.

Verb

1. To grind up into, or as if into, powder.
• 1848, On Lucifer Matches, in the Pharmaceutical Journal, volume 7 (1847-8), page 523: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.
• 1901, Patrick Walker, Six Saints of the Covenant, volume 1, page 31:I have often thought in my melancholy days, these years bygone, that if it might be supposed, that the souls of our worthies were come from heaven, and the dust of their mullered bodies from their graves, and reunite again;

Noun

1. (metallurgy) A machine that mixes sand and clay for use in metal castings.
• 2008, Stephen Chastain, Build a Muller, The muller can easily plow through any sand mixture that I put in it and has plenty of power left over.

Synonyms

• sand muller

Unknown. The most prosaic theory derives it from muller¹ ("to grind into powder"). One theory derives the term from the surname of the murderer Franz Müller,

Cassell's Dictionary of Slang (ISBN 0304366366, 2005), page 976

while another theory derives it from the surname of German footballer Gerd Müller;

Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (ISBN 1408181819, 2014), page 298

both are phonologically improbable

. The Oxford Guide to Etymology (ISBN 0191618780, 2009) asserts that it is "very probably of Romani origin, from a verb ultimately related to Sanskrit má¹›-' 'to die')."

Verb

1. (UK) To defeat or destroy utterly (as in a sport or competition).
• 2006, Jez Butterworth, The Winterling, Sure enough, they've got mullered. They're yesterday's men. The sands of time have washed over them.
• 2007, Stephen Cole, Thieves Like Us, page 220:Then there were these zombie cult people in the beds, wires and stuff shoved into them, and then Yianna had these two minders and they were the ones who mullered us in Cairo, I swear, and one of them grabbed Con ...
• 2009, Martina Cole, Close, "They mullered him, Jimmy." Spider shook his head. "He was completely destroyed."