mull

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /mʌl/

  • Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -ʌl

Related to mill (“to grind”).

mull (third-person singular simple present mulls, present participle mulling, simple past and past participle mulled)

1. (usually with over) To work (over) mentally; to cogitate; to ruminate.

   to mull a thought or a problem

   he paused to mull over his various options before making a decision

   • 1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., OCLC 17392886; republished as chapter 5, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, 1914, OCLC 1224185:

     It was the germ of a thought, which, however, was destined to mull around in his conscious and subconscious mind until it resulted in magnificent achievement.

   • 2021 February 2, Katharine Murphy, The Guardian‎:

     When Morrison mulls the pluses and minuses associated with rebuking Kelly for undermining the government’s public health messaging, the prime minister faces a genuine substantive dilemma, and that goes to the risks of amplification.

2. To powder; to pulverize.
3. To chop marijuana so that it becomes a smokable form.
4. To heat and spice something, such as wine.
5. To join two or more individual windows at mullions.
6. To dull or stupefy.

• mulled wine, mulled cider

mull (countable and uncountable, plural mulls)

1. (uncountable) Marijuana that has been chopped to prepare it for smoking.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:marijuana

2. A stew of meat, broth, milk, butter, vegetables, and seasonings, thickened with soda crackers.
3. The gauze used in bookbinding to adhere a text block to a book's cover.
4. An inferior kind of madder prepared from the smaller roots or the peelings and refuse of the larger.
5. (slang, archaic) A mess of something; a mistake.
   • 1904, New Zealand. Parliament. House of Representatives, Parliamentary Debates (page 83)

     Mr. HERDMAN. — The honourable member for Nelson says they made a mull of it. If the honourable gentleman had been a financial authority he would never have given expression to such a thought.

   • 2014, Andrea Pickens, A Stroke of Luck

     After studying the page a bit longer, she made a face. "Good Lord, you've really made a mull of it. Here, let me have a closer look."

Shortened from mulmul.

mull (countable and uncountable, plural mulls)

1. A thin, soft muslin.
   • 1916, “Smocking”, in The Dressmaker: A Complete Book on All Matters Connected with Sewing and Dressmaking […], 2nd revised and enlarged edition, New York, N.Y.; London: The Butterick Publishing Company, OCLC 2883294, page 29:

     Smocking done in colors on fine white batiste, silk mull, or nainsook makes pretty guimpes and dresses for children and very smart blouses for women.

• → German: Mull
• → Norwegian Bokmål: moll

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

mull (plural mulls)

1. (Scotland) A promontory.

   the Mull of Kintyre

2. A snuffbox made of the small end of a horn.

From Middle English molle (“rubbish”), from Middle French mol or its etymon Latin mollis.

mull (uncountable)

1. dirt; rubbish

mull

1. Alternative form of molle (“rubbish”)
   • c. 1386–1390, John Gower, Reinhold Pauli, editor, Confessio Amantis of John Gower: Edited and Collated with the Best Manuscripts, volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Bell and Daldy […], published 1857, OCLC 827099568:

     That other cofre of straw and mull

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

mull (plural mulls)

1. headland

From Old Norse mold, from Proto-Germanic *muldō (“dirt, soil”). Cognate with Icelandic mold, German Mull, Dutch moude and Gothic 𐌼𐌿𐌻𐌳𐌰 (mulda).

• IPA^(key): /mɵl/

mull c

1. mold (loose soil), earth

   Synonym: mylla

2. dust

• mull in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• mull in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)