mule /mjuːl/noun 11verb 1forms 3 noun11 •The generally sterile male or female hybrid offspring of a male donkey and a female horse.One day he ran into a herd of a half dozen elk, so he rode his mule down the canyon three or four miles, leaving the sheep alone. — 2017 •The generally sterile hybrid offspring of any two species of animals.It would be exceedingly interesting to know if the hybrid would reproduce, a matter I deem exceedingly doubtful, for the chances are it would prove a "mule" (infertile). — 1922 •(slang) A person paid to smuggle drugs.Cocaine packet ingestion (these patients referred to as “mules”) may warrant surgery, Golytely or expectant passage. — 2006 •Any shoe with an upper covering the front of the foot but without a back flap or strap, leaving the heel exposed.The bride was a shocking housekeeper and dragged round all day in boudoir cap, frowsy negligee and mules—slip, slop, slip, slop. — 1944 •(informal) A stubborn person."Where in the hell do you think I learned to be such a mule?” — 2005 •Any of a group of cocktails involving ginger ale or ginger beer, citrus juice, and various liquors. •A MMORPG character, or NPC companion in a tabletop RPG, used mainly to store extra inventory for the owner's primary character. •A coin or medal minted with obverse and reverse designs not normally seen on the same piece, either intentionally or in error.What is less clear, however, is why mint workers should have chosen to produce mules, if they were making forgeries […] — 1988 •A kind of cotton-spinning machine. •A kind of triangular sail for a yacht.In heavier seas where a boat must sail a course dictated by waves, or where wave action makes power more important than pointing, the mule will prove the faster sail. — 1974 •(no longer used) A hybrid plant.Vegetable mules supply an irrefragable argument in favour of the sexual system of botany. — 1789 verb1 •(slang) To smuggle (illegal drugs).Thornton was supposed to mule it back to the States from one of the ports he stopped in, give it to Maxwell and Ames, and get the second half of a quarter-million. — 2004 formsmuled · muling · mules
