mule

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   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.

2. 2
   noun

   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).

3. 3
   noun

   A hybrid plant.

   Vegetable mules supply an irrefragable argument in favour of the sexual system of botany.

4. 4
   noun

   A stubborn person.

   "Where in the hell do you think I learned to be such a mule?”

5. 5
   noun

   A person paid to smuggle drugs.

   Cocaine packet ingestion (these patients referred to as “mules”) may warrant surgery, Golytely or expectant passage.

6. 6
   noun

   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 […]

7. 7
   noun

   A MMORPG character, or NPC companion in a tabletop RPG, used mainly to store extra inventory for the owner's primary character.

   He was in the middle of organizing his massive stash of rare and exquisite bounty, all kept safely in the inventory cache of a mule, an entirely separate character which he paid a monthly fee to maintain exclusively for that purpose.

8. 8
   noun

   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.

Etymology

From Middle English mule, from Anglo-Norman mule and Old English mūl, both from Latin mūlus, from Proto-Indo-European *mukslós. Compare Late Latin muscellus (“young he-mule”), Old East Slavic мъшкъ (mŭškŭ, “mule”), Ancient Greek (Phocian) μυχλός (mukhlós, “he-ass”), and German Maul Maultier, Maulesel (through Latin).