释义 |
▪ I. mull, n.1|mʌl| Forms: α. 4 mol, 5–6 molle, 7 moll; β. 4–6 mul, 4–5 mull(e, 9 dial. mull. [ME. mol, mul, cogn. w. OE. myl, MDu. mul, mol, mil, mulle neut. (Du. mol neut., mul fem.) dust, ON. mole crumb, molna (intr.) to crumble, mylja (pa. tense mulde) to shiver, crush; f. Teut. root *mul- (: mal-, mel-): see meal n.1] 1. a. Something reduced to small particles; dust, ashes, mould, rubbish. Obs. exc. dial. α13..E.E. Allit. P. A. 382, I am bot mol and maneres [MS. mareres] misse. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xxiv. (Alexis) 213 In care bed scho lay done, In mol & hayre & woful fude. c1450St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 4682 Molle on þair heueds þai scaterd. 1683Pettus Fleta Min. i. (1686) 304, I conclude it better to melt with Coals, than with Moll, Sod or turf. β1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 6198 And þere þey fonde þe cofre ful Sperd wyþ þe deuylys mul Of florens [etc.]. 13..E.E. Allit. P. A. 905, I am bot mokke & mul among. 1390Gower Conf. II. 204 That other cofre of straw and mull..he felde also. 1481Caxton Myrr. i. v. 25 The Cock..shrapeth so longe in the duste and mulle til he fynde a gemme. 1570Levins Manip. 185/20 Mul, rudus. 1729P. Walkden Diary 9 July (1866) 30, I sodded the turf stack top, and dressed the mull from beside it. 1876Whitby Gloss., Mull, dust. †b. Comb.: mull-rain, fine rain.
c1440Promp. Parv. 348/1 Mulreyne, plutina. 2. A suspension of a finely ground solid in a liquid, esp. one used in recording the infra-red spectrum of the solid.
1956Mineral. Mag. XXXI. 193 Spectra were obtained on the Perkin-Elmer model 21 double-beam instrument, using both the ‘Nujol’ mull technique and pressed KBr pellets. 1964H. A. Szymanski IR: Theory & Pract. Infrared Spectroscopy iii. 78 Hydrocarbon oils as well as halogenated hydrocarbons have been used as the liquid in mulls. 1971Skoog & West Princ. Instrumental Analysis vi. 152 The resulting mull is then examined as a thin film between flat salt plates. ▪ II. mull, n.2 Sc.|mʌl| Forms: 4 mole, 6–8 mule, 7 mould, 9– mull. [In Gael. maol; in Icelandic múli (common in place-names; perh. identical with múli snout, cogn. w. OHG. mûl (G. maul).] In Scotland, a promontory or headland.
1375Barbour Bruce iii. 696 Thai raysyt saile, and furth thai far; And by the mole thai passyt ȝar. 1564Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 306 The boit liand at Garvellane, in the Mule of Galloway. 1632Lithgow Trav. x. 495 Betweene Dungsby head..and the..Mould of Galloway. 1795J. Sinclair Statist. Acc. Scotl. XIV. 324 note, Such places are quite frequent, both in Shetland, such as the Mule of Unst, and in..Orkney, called the Mule-head of Deerness. 1846McCulloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) I. 242 The coasts of Scotland..are very much indented, the shores extend into lengthened headlands or mulls. ▪ III. † mull, n.3 Sc. Obs. [Origin and sense uncertain.] ? A lip. Cf. ‘Mulls, the lips of a sheep, or, in contempt of a man’ (Brockett N.C. Words, ed. 3, 1846).
c1500Kennedy Poems (Schipper) ii. 20 Frely to gife I wald nocht lett, To pleiss þa mullis attour all þingis. a1550Freiris Berwik 142 in Dunbar's Poems (S.T.S.) 290 Thir mvllis of ȝouris ar callit to ane feist. ▪ IV. mull, n.4|mʌl| [a. Du. mul, etymologically = mull n.1] The lowest of the four qualities of Dutch madder. Also mull-madder.
1640in Entick London (1766) II. 168 Crop madder, and all other bale madder..Fat madder..Mull madder. 1834McCulloch Dict. Comm. (ed. 2) 771 Dutch or Zealand madder..is divided..into four qualities,..mull, gamene, ombro, and crops... The first species, or mull, consists of a powder formed by pounding the very small roots. ▪ V. mull, n.5 Obs. exc. dial. [? var. of moil n. Cf. moiley, mully.] A heifer, a cow.
1655J. Phillips Sat. agst. Hipocrites 3 To keep the Sabbath such have been our cares, That Cisly durst not milk the gentle Mulls. a1658Cleveland Upon a Miser Poems (1677) 77 Thou that didst once put on the form of Bull, And turn'd thine Io to a lovely Mull. 1881Leicestersh. Gloss., Mull, Mull-cow, or Mully-cow, a child's name for a cow. ▪ VI. mull, n.6 Sc.|mʌl| [Sc. form of mill n.1] A snuff-box = mill n.1 2 c.
1771Smollett Humph. Cl. III. 3 Oct., The lieutenant..pulled out, instead of his own Scotch mull, a very fine gold snuff-box. 1885Ross & Stonehewer-Cooper Highl. Cantabria 347 A veritable mull of the most approved proportions. ▪ VII. mull, n.7|mʌl| [Shortened form of mulmull.] a. A thin variety of plain muslin, esp. the fine muslin sometimes stuck to the spine of a book before its cover is put on.
1798Jane Austen Northang. Abb. x, The texture of their muslin..the spotted, the sprigged, the mull or the jackonet. 1880Specif. Patent No. 4765 in Engineer L. 76/1 The mulls or butter-cloths in which butter is kept or packed for transmission. 1880Boston Sunday Herald 3 Oct. 10/7 A new fichu comes from Paris. It is made of silk mull. 1880J. W. Zaehnsdorf Art of Bookbinding xix. 85 In ‘throw up’ backs, or in ‘flexible not to show’, a piece of thin linen or stuff called mull (muslin) is glued on the back first, and one piece of paper on the top. 1882Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework, Mull Muslin, a very thin and soft variety of Muslin employed for morning dresses, and for trimmings. It is undressed, whereas the Swiss Mull is dressed. 1899Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 520 The plaister muslins (mulls) introduced by Unna. 1951S. Jennett Making of Books xi. 173 A length of mull (the open-weave material that can be seen through the endpapers of most books). 1967V. Strauss Printing Industry x. 673/2 The next preparatory step is lining up. It consists in attaching one or more strips of fabric, known as crash—called mull in Canada—and super, as well as a strip of strong paper to the back of the book. b. attrib.
1873Young Englishwoman Dec. 559/1 This edging may be worked on cambric or mull muslin. 1910Encycl. Brit. VII. 277/2 (Cotton) The finer kinds, made from Egyptian yarns, are called mull-dhooties. 1960Cunnington & Beard Dict. Eng. Costume 265/1 Mull muslin, 19th c., a soft thin muslin, not silky, finer than nainsook. ▪ VIII. mull, n.8 Anglo-Ind. slang.|mʌl| [Shortened f. mulligatawny.] Applied as a distinctive sobriquet to members of the service belonging to the Madras Presidency (Yule Hobson-Jobson).
1816‘Quiz’ Grand Master vi. 145 A well-known Mul. popp'd out his head. Note, An abbreviation for Mulkatany, a common appellation for Madras officers. ▪ IX. mull, n.9 colloq. or slang.|mʌl| [Of obscure origin: possibly f. mull v.1] A muddle, ‘mess’. Chiefly in phr. to make a mull of.
1821Egan Life in Lond. I. 606 Somebody must make a mull—but Randall's the man. 1840E. E. Napier Scenes & Sports For. Lands II. App. 260 On a subsequent attempt to navigate..I nearly made a mull of the business. 1870Lond. Soc. Sept. 268 The French are for ever making a mull of our names. 1894Rugby U. Football Handbk. 16 Hanging about off-side on the look-out for a ‘mull’. ▪ X. mull, n.10 Soil Sci.|mʌl| [ad. Da. muld mould n.1 (adopted in this specific sense by P. E. Müller 1879, in Tidsskrift for Skovbrug III. 7): etymologically = mull n.1] Humus which does not form a distinct layer on top of the soil but is admixed with the underlying mineral soil, which is characteristic of grasslands and hardwood forests and is generally weakly acid to weakly alkaline in reaction. Cf. mor.
1928Ecology IX. 9 The soil on this..was identified by Dr. Hesselman as a true mull profile. Ibid. 10 The mull is deepest under ash and sugar maple. 1931Ibid. XII. 570 Müller distinguished two main types of humus layer called mull..and mor. 1935Forestry IX. 43 Mull or neutral humus..though usually acid in reaction contains sufficient calcium to allow of a crumb or grain structure with a generally ‘loose’ or ‘porous’ constitution. 1952P. W. Richards Trop. Rain Forest ix. 218 The humus of rain-forest soils..would appear to resemble the ‘mull’ rather than the ‘mor’ of temperate forest soils. 1974Encycl. Brit. Macropædia VII. 537/1 In the temperate regions two major types of organic matter predominate, the mull and the mor. ▪ XI. mull, n.11|mʌl| [f. mull v.3] Mulled wine.
1925J. Thomas Bon Vivant's Compan. 105 (heading) Mulls. 1953D. A. Embury Fine Art of Mixing Drinks xiii. 296 A mull, or mulled wine, is simply a spiced and sweetened wine served piping hot. 1959Listener 24 Dec. 1135/3 The mull must be kept hot. 1962J. Conil Epicurean Book xiii. 209 Do not boil the wine, nor allow the mull to reach boiling point. 1972House & Garden Dec. 103/1 The best mulls have as their base an inexpensive, full-bodied red wine. ▪ XII. mull, v.1|mʌl| [f. mull n.1 Cf. Du. dial. mullen.] 1. a. trans. To grind to powder, pulverize; to crumble (cf. Sc. mool v. 1). Obs. exc. dial.
c1430Pilgr. Lyf Manhode iv. xxxiii. (1869) 194 An oother j sigh that wente bi the cloistre and as me thouhte she bar mete croumed [MS. St. John's Coll., Camb. fol. 127 b, muled, Fr. orig. enmiellee (? misread emiettee)] up on parchemyn. c1440Promp. Parv. 348/1 Mullyn, or breke to powder, or mulle.., pulveriso. 1483Cath. Angl. 246/1 To Mulbrede, jnterere, micare. 1620Middleton & Rowley World Tost at Tennis E 2, Herre's one spits fire as he comes, hee will goe nye to mull the world with looking on it, how his eyes sparckle? 1829Brockett N.C. Words (ed. 2) s.v. Mull, Oaten bread broken into crumbs, is called mulled bread. 1877Holderness Gloss., Moll, to crumple; to crush... ‘Ah can moll it all ti pieces wi mi finger an thumb’. b. trans. To convert (solid material) into a mull (mull n.1 2). So mulled ppl. a.2
1941Austral. Jrnl. Dentistry XLV. 163/2 The writer feels justified in urging all dentists to give up the practice of mulling their amalgams in the bare palm of the hand. Ibid. 161/2 It should..be stated that the curves for the mulled specimens are average ones. 1943Industr. & Engin. Chem. (Analytical Ed.) XV. 663/2 Samples of insoluble, infusible materials may be prepared for examination by grinding the substance to as fine a powder as possible, then mulling it thoroughly in a straight-chain hydrocarbon, such as Nujol. 1948Rev. Sci. Instruments XIX. 165/1 The present technique is to mull the sample in a mineral oil such as Nujol. 1956J. N. Anderson Appl. Dental Materials xxv. 359 The dentist..may show symptoms of slight mercurial poisoning if he employs the technique of ‘mulling’ or ‘palming’ amalgam in the hand over a period of years. 1964H. A. Szymanski IR: Theory & Pract. Infrared Spectroscopy iii. 78 The name given to this technique [sc. dispersing a solid in a liquid] is mulling the sample. †2. intr. To rain fine rain; to mizzle. Obs.—0
c1440Promp. Parv. 348/1 Mullyn, or reynyn a mulreyne, plutinat. ▪ XIII. † mull, v.2 Obs. rare. [Of obscure origin: perh. a use of mull v.1] trans. To dull, stupefy.
1607Shakes. Cor. iv. v. 239 Let me haue Warre say I... Peace, is a very Apoplexy, Lethargie, mull'd, deafe, sleepe, insensible. a1687Cotton Poems (1689) 96 Till Ale, which crowns all such pretences, Mull'd them again into their senses. ▪ XIV. mull, v.3|mʌl| [Of obscure origin. It is not easy to connect the sense satisfactorily with that of mull v.1 It has been suggested that the vb. is f. mull n.1 applied to the powdered spices used in mulling; but there is no evidence of such a specific use of the n. Another unsupported conjecture is that the original sense may have been ‘to soften’, ‘render mild’ (cf. Du. mul soft) of which mull v.2 might be another application. Quite inadmissible is the notion, which appears in all recent Dicts., that mulled ale is a corruption of moldale (mould n.1) funeral banquet.] trans. To make (wine, beer, etc.) into a hot drink with the addition of sugar, spices, beaten yolk of egg, etc.
1618Fletcher Loyal Subj. iv. vi, Do not fire the Cellar, There's excellent Wine in't, Captain, and though it be cold weather, I do not love it mull'd. 1636Davenant Witts iv. i. Wks. (1673) 207 The Town affords not Sack enough To mull for a Parsons cold. 1769Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 311 To mull Wine. 1865Dickens Mut. Fr. i. vi, When they mulled your ale. fig.c1640Capt. Underwit iv. ii. in Bullen O. Pl. II. 376 What shalls doe with him; this Engine burnes like Etna. Throw him into the River. Hee's able to mull the Thames well. ▪ XV. mull, v.4 rare—1.|mʌl| [App. ad. Hindī malnā to rub, anoint. But possibly associated with an Eng. dialect word (? a developed sense of mull v.1). Cf. the following:
1881Leicestersh. Gloss., Mull, to..rub round and round. ‘Mulling his knee.’ ‘That child mulls his tongue.’] trans. To massage.
1825–9Mrs. Sherwood Lady of Manor V. xxix. 74 She..was rubbed every day with oil, and mulled and kneaded according to the fashion of the country. ▪ XVI. mull, v.5|mʌl| [f. mull n.9; sense 2 may be a distinct word.] 1. trans. (Athletics.) To make a failure of.
1862Sporting Life 14 June, Pooley here ‘mulled’ a catch. 1894–5Rugby U. Football Handbk. 15 Opportunities of scoring are lost in every match by a forward mulling a pass. 2. a. intr. (See quots. 1879, 1890.) Chiefly colloq. U.S.
1857J. G. Holland Bay-Path xvii. 200 ‘What do you do with them [troubles]?’ ‘Let 'em mull.’ 1879Webster Suppl., Mull, to work steadily without accomplishing much. (Colloq. Amer.) 1890Webster, Mull, v. i. To work (over) mentally; to cogitate; to ruminate; usually with over; as, to mull over a thought or a problem. Colloq. U.S. b. mull over (an idea, etc.), to turn over in one's mind, cogitate upon.
1880R. Grant Confess. Friv. Girl (1881) 155 Not exactly wondering what he was doing, but mulling over the various incidents of our acquaintance. 1889Atlantic Monthly Aug. 188/1 Milborne was not likely to act upon impulse, and there is even reason to believe he took much time mulling over the matter after it developed in his mind. 1910J. London Let. 9 Feb. (1966) 299 If I can get from you a suggestion of a motif..which, after mulling over, I decide I can do, I could..join you. 1949B. Woolfe in A. Dundes Mother Wit (1973) 529 The Rabbit mulls the problem over. 1958Times 20 Aug. 10/7 Bill and I discovered a mutual hobby in fishing. Rods had to be produced for inspection..and experiences mulled over. 1966Listener 3 Nov. 650/2 Of course one mulls over that. c. trans. To consider, ponder upon. U.S.
1923Dialect Notes V. 215 Mull, v., to ponder over, to cogitate upon. 1949Sun (Baltimore) 27 Dec. 5/1 At last report, the county was mulling a price. 1958Wall St. Jrnl. 29 Oct. 1/5 The idea of a U.S. pledge to facilitate state and local borrowing is mulled by the joint Federal-state committee on swapping services and revenue sources between the U.S. Government and the states. 1972Newsweek 10 Jan. 39/3 Mr. Nixon is mulling two possible tactics. 1972Science 22 Sept. 1081/1 The Germans..were mulling a public recommendation from their safety advisory committee. ▪ XVII. mull, v.6 Lithogr.|mʌl| [Back-formation from muller n.1] trans. To give a granular surface to (the plate) by means of a muller and sand.
1876Abney Instr. Photogr. (ed. 3) 134 The zinc plates..are mulled in the ordinary manner with a muller and fine sand. Ibid. 156 The property that a calcareous stone or mulled zinc plate possesses for absorbing..water. ▪ XVIII. mull, v.7 Used (? by mistake) for mill v. 5.
1840Thackeray Paris Sk.-bk. II. 288 His simple taste found little..to enjoy beyond the mulling of chocolate. ▪ XIX. mull, v.8|mʌl| [Perh. related to other vbl. uses of mull.] a. trans. To moisten (leather) during manufacture so as to make it more supple. b. intr. Of leather: to become soft by moistening. So mulled ppl. a.3, ˈmulling vbl. n.3
1931F. Plucknett Boot & Shoe Manuf. xxvi. 166/2 One of the more recent innovations in the lasting-room is the ‘mulling chamber’, the idea being that if the upper materials absorb a suitable amount of dampness they will stretch easier. 1953W. Moore in J. H. Thornton Textbk. Footwear Manuf. xx. 277 A criticism of mulling is that the fibre of the leather is adversely affected... The mulled upper after lasting is rather damp. 1962New Scientist 12 Apr. 33/1 Almost any known leather, it is believed, can be mulled in fewer than four minutes. 1963Times 7 Mar. 20/1 In previous shoemaking methods the uppers of the shoes had to remain on ‘lasts’ for five or six days in order to get their shape. The new process does the job in half an hour by means of pumping moisture into the leather in a special mulling machine. 1969T. C. Thorstensen Pract. Leather Technol. xii. 197 After the oils and greases have been distributed uniformly over the surface, the leather is removed from the drum and allowed to mull, once the initial heat has been removed by air cooling. ▪ XX. mull obs. form of mule. |