| mule | 1. <zoology> A hybrid animal; specifically, one generated between an ass and a mare, sometimes a horse and a she-ass. See Hinny. Mules are much used as draught animals. They are hardy, and proverbial for stubbornness. 2. <botany> A plant or vegetable produced by impregnating the pistil of one species with the pollen or fecundating dust of another; called also hybrid. 3. A very stubborn person. 4. A machine, used in factories, for spinning cotton, wool, etc, into yarn or thread and winding it into cops; called also jenny and mule-jenny. Mule armadillo, an idle pulley for guiding a belt which transmits motion between shafts that are not parallel. Mule twist, cotton yarn in cops, as spun on a mule; in distinction from yarn spun on a throstle frame. Origin: F, a she-mule, L. Mula, fem. Of mulus; cf. Gr, . Cf. AS. Ml, fr. L. Mulus. Cf. Mulatto. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| mule-spinner's cancer | Carcinoma of the scrotum or adjacent skin exposed to oil, observed in some workers in cotton-spinning mills. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Mules' operation | Evisceration of the eyeball followed by the insertion within the sclera of a spherical prosthesis to support an artificial eye. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Mules, Philip | <person> English ophthalmologist, 1843-1905. See: Mules' operation. (05 Mar 2000) |
| mulewort | <botany> A fern of the genus Hemionitis. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |