mule
1 Americannoun
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the sterile offspring of a female horse and a male donkey, valued as a work animal, having strong muscles, a body shaped like a horse, and donkeylike long ears, small feet, and sure-footedness.
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any hybrid between the donkey and the horse.
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Informal. a very stubborn person.
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Botany. any sterile hybrid.
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Biology. a hybrid, especially one between the canary and some other finch.
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Slang. a person paid to carry or transport contraband, especially drugs, for a smuggler.
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a small locomotive used for pulling rail cars, as in a coal yard or on an industrial site, or for towing, as of ships through canal locks.
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Also called spinning mule. a machine for spinning cotton or other fibers into yarn and winding the yarn on spindles.
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Nautical. a large triangular staysail set between two masts and having its clew set well aft.
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Numismatics. a hybrid coin having the obverse of one issue and the reverse of the succeeding issue, or vice versa.
idioms
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forty acres and a mule, a broken or unfulfilled promise, especially one with unjust, long-term consequences: an allusion to the parcels of farmland that formerly enslaved African Americans were promised and given after the Civil War and then had taken away from them.
The protesters chanted their demand, “Real action, real justice, no forty acres and a mule.”
noun
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a lounging slipper that covers the toes and instep or only the instep.
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a woman's shoe resembling this.
noun
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the sterile offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, used as a beast of burden Compare hinny 1
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any hybrid animal
a mule canary
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Also called: spinning mule. a machine invented by Samuel Crompton that spins cotton into yarn and winds the yarn on spindles
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informal an obstinate or stubborn person
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slang a person who is paid to transport illegal drugs for a dealer
noun
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a backless shoe or slipper
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see stubborn as a mule.
Etymology
Origin of mule1
First recorded before 1000; Middle English, from Old French, from Latin mūla “mule” (feminine); replacing Old English mūl, from Latin mūlus (masculine)
Origin of mule2
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English mule, moule “sore spot on the heel, chilblain,” perhaps from Middle Dutch mūle
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Leading a mule train into the tunnels, Ondro faces a calamity that enters the history books.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 27, 2026
Thomas Jefferson, who owned a mule named “Dr. Slop,” mimicked Sterne’s style in friendly correspondence, and was among the many readers who liked to deploy the descriptor “Shandean.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 9, 2026
The company said the shoes—a chunky mule and sneaker, respectively—have bright orange foam nodes on their soles that sharpen the wearer’s senses, potentially increasing focus.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 19, 2025
McIntosh has watched mule deer since he was a kid.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 10, 2025
He raised prize-winning mules there, and it would take a mule to get down the steep rocky trail to his place.
From "The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs" by Betty G. Birney
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.