Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A heavy, long-handled hammer used especially to drive stakes, piles, or wedges.
- n. A heavy hammer having a wedge-shaped head and used for splitting logs.
- n. Sports A play in Rugby in which a mass of players gathers around a ball carrier being tackled and attempts to gain possession of the ball when it is released.
- n. Sports The mass of players during such a play.
- v. To injure by or as if by beating: The boxer mauled the other fighter. The critics mauled the novelist's first effort. See Synonyms at batter1.
- v. To handle roughly: The package was mauled by the careless messenger.
- v. To split (wood) with a maul and wedge.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A heavy wooden hammer or mallet; a kind of beetle; a mall.
- To beat and bruise with a maul, or as if with, a maul; disfigure by beating.
- To do injury to, especially gross injury, in any way.
- To split with wedges and a maul or mallet.
- n. Clayey, sticky soil.
- n. A moth.
- n. The common mallow of Great Britain, Malva sylvestris.
- n. Specifically In well-boring, a heavy block of wood used like the ram of a pile-driver to drive pipe into the ground for water or preliminary to boring in the rock below.
- n. Same as mold, n.
Wiktionary
- n. A heavy long-handled hammer, used for splitting logs by driving a wedge into it, or in combat.
- n. rugby A situation where the player carrying the ball, who must be on his feet, is held by one or more opponents, and one or more of the ball carrier's team mates bind onto the ball carrier.
- v. To handle someone or something in a rough way.
- v. To savage; to cause serious physical wounds (usually by an animal).
- v. figuratively To criticise harshly.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A heavy wooden hammer or beetle.
- v. To beat and bruise with a heavy stick or cudgel; to wound in a coarse manner.
- v. To injure greatly; to do much harm to.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a heavy long-handled hammer used to drive stakes or wedges
- v. split (wood) with a maul and wedges
- v. injure badly by beating
Etymologies
- Middle English malle ("mace, maul"), from Anglo-Norman mail, from Old French mail, from Latin malleus ("hammer") (Wiktionary)
- Middle English malle, from Old French mail, from Latin malleus. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It's no secret our maul was a good weapon for us last year but going through a Premiership season just kicking and mauling is not necessarily possible," Hayes said.”
The Guardian: Exeter prepare for Welford Road after riding wind against Gloucester
“The defense can stop the player with the ball either by tackling him to the ground or by holding the ball-carrier on his feet (called a maul).”
“He was instrumental in stopping their maul, which is one of their main weapons.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“I do share the concern that the maul is a forgotten art in New Zealand rugby," said Henry.”
“Newly reappointed forwards coach Steve Hansen brushed off suggestions that the maul was another area where the South Africans were setting the agenda but did agree it was something his men had to get up to speed on.”
“Authorities say the elder Lane was killed in his rural Bethalto home after being hit on the head with the maul, which is a heavy wedge attached to a long handle.”
“We're not the prettiest group or the fanciest, but we kind of maul you a little bit, '' Hitchcock said.”
“On reflection, its probably just 'maul' and 'grim'; nasty connotations for a nasty piece of work!”
“If you don't go for a whole word that has a violent meaning, like "maul," you take an agressive or menacing word like "invader" or "insidious," remove the "in -" from it, and there ya go.”
“AMERICAN MORNING's Ali Velshi is live from a "maul" on Long Island.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘maul’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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fight
words for fighting
( open list, randomness )bout, fight, match, smackdown, blue, stoush, battle, clash, fuss, fray, ruckus, tussle and 115 more...
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I am : violent
Destructive verbs that speed up entropy. (Still working on definition of what I want; may add adjectives later.)
destroy, wreck, thrash, trash, beat up, annihilate, exterminate, disembowel, eviscerate, disintegrate, explode, bomb and 41 more...
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Greek Fire
being items related to mediaeval warfare, arms and armaments.
caltrop, ballista, trebuchet, mangonel, petard, onager, petrary, hurlbat, francisca, crossbow, longbow, flail and 97 more...
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Chennessy's Words
philistine, messianic, dyad, cult, bourgeois, blot, ploy, polyglot, lingua franca, cumbersome, lumber, petit-bourgeois and 446 more...
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A Parthian Shot: Archery Words
Just what it says. Archery rocks.
bow, arrow, longbow, crossbow, barebow, recurve, compound bow, flight, arrowhead, nock, feather, yew and 197 more...
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Ny New Words
From Barron Wordlist the New Words
lap, lank, languor, languish, lancet, lance, lampoon, larceny, larder, largess, lascivious, latitude and 120 more...
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Reading Reading
Words from the works of Peter Reading - at least one from each (except the Schwitters-esque erosions, cut-ups etc).
overbright, pimpled, muskiness, effuse, stoup, maul, unlevel, viscid, perfidious, glibly, aloes, drouth and 449 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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Underworld
Don DeLillo
roily, reverie, slidy, bandido, mohair, brilliantine, stupe, juke step, jowly, juke, wicket, quidbit and 391 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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Permutations
There are 17576 different sequences of three letters (26 x 26 x 26). How many of them occur in words? General rules of engagement: mononyms only, lower case preferred to upper case, short preferred...
aaargh, niqaabi, Isaac, raad, baaed, haaf, laager, aah, kamaaina, Naajaat, aak, aalii and 637 more...
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Prosie: The Launch of the Mauretania ...
by John Maxtone-Graham. Tons of interesting-sounding words, half of which I cannot comprehend on their own, but which together conjure an unmistakable image of naval architecture and shipyard activ...
keel, hull, admiralty, moulding loft, frame-bender, berth, stern, shell plating, tons, mill, fitted, rivet marks and 132 more...
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GRE uncommon
patronage, expletive, exhort, exegesis, execrable, excommunicate, evince, escarpment, ersatz, ergo, epoxy, snare and 1202 more...
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On The Road
It's a book by Jack Kerouac
Vague, jalopy, naïve, emaciated, vindicate, hysterical, Obsequious, Schopenhauer, dichotomy, jargon, phosphorescence, lout and 87 more...
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set 10
impertinent, frond, uxorious, impiety, travesty, obstetrician, chasm, supposititious, sham, sagacious, urchin, sallow and 74 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for maul.

whichbe Let's go to the maul! Oct 17, 2008
yarb ... Sheep maul
beyond recognition alarmingly quickly
the sandwich-paper memorials left
by charabanc-trippers...
- Peter Reading, Plague Graves, from For the Municipality's Elderly, 1974 Jun 22, 2008
skipvia A wooden club used with a froe to split wood. Nov 20, 2007