Meanings
muller1
muller2
muller3
plural mullers
- pharmacyartA stone with a flat grinding surface, which is held in the hand and rubbed on a slab to grind paint pigments, medicinal powders, etc.
The muller provides, in addition, a useful means of comparing the important property of the rate of strength development of pigments.
1994, John Wilder Tukey, David R. Brillinger, The collected works of John W. Tukey, →ISBN, page 607
present singular third person mullers · participle present mullering · participle past mullered · past mullered
- colloquialobsoleteraretransitiveTo grind up (something) into, or as if into, powder.
The mixing is conducted in a water-bath, and during this process, and as long as the phosphorus is being ground or ‘mullered,’ copious fumes are evolved.
1848, On Lucifer Matches, in the Pharmaceutical Journal, volume 7 (1847-8), page 523
muller4
present singular third person mullers · participle present mullering · participle past mullered · past mullered
- UKslangtransitiveTo beat or thrash (someone).
"They mullered him, Jimmy." Spider shook his head. "He was completely destroyed."
2009, Martina Cole, Close, →ISBN, page 2865 more examples
We walked down to the golf club to get a beer; they readily agreed as we went, it had been a dreadful game. Macca [Steve McMahon] asked Gazza [Paul Gascoigne], had he heard? – they were getting ‘mullered’ back home. […] Gazza said he wasn’t surprised, it was fair enough – and Macca said the same. He said he didn’t mind getting trashed, when they’d played a lousy game – what he hated was getting trashed for two weeks solid beforehand, when the Cup hadn’t even started.
1990, Pete Davies, “All Played Out: England–Ireland”, in All Played Out: The Full Story of Italia ’90, London: Mandarin Paperbacks, published 1991, →ISBN, page 235You needn't make so much fuss. Nobody's going to bother about you. It's me that's going to get mullered.
2001 June, Rebecca Tope, chapter 4, in Dark Undertakings, 1st St. Martin’s Minotaur (American) edition, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Dunne Books, →ISBN, section VIII, page 137Sure enough, they've got mullered. They're yesterday's men. The sands of time have washed over them.
2006, Jez Butterworth, The Winterling, →ISBN, page 39Then there were these zombie cult people in the beds, wires and stuff shoved into them, and then Yianna had these two minders and they were the ones who mullered us in Cairo, I swear, and one of them grabbed Con […]
2007, Stephen Cole, Thieves Like Us, page 220The boys couldn't stand idly by while three Wednesdayites got mullered; it was not the done thing.
2012, Anthony Cronshaw, Wednesday Rucks and Rock 'n' Roll: Tales from the East Bank
muller5
present singular third person mullers · participle present mullering · participle past mullered · past mullered
Muller6
plural Mullers · alternative Mueller · alternative Müller
- A surname from German [in turn originating as an occupation].
“In the past you had to pick your battles, you had limited resources and limited attorneys, so you picked the things that you thought would have the biggest stakes,” Muller said. Now, election litigators don’t have to be so “choosy.”
2024 April 11, Fredreka Schouten and Tierney Sneed, “GOP leaders pursue new lawsuits over 2024 election rules – including attacking methods of voting they want supporters to use”, in CNN
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA machine that mixes clay and sand under a roller for use in preparing a mould for metal casting.
verbTo utterly defeat or outplay (a sportsperson, a team, etc.); to destroy, to thrash, to trounce.
More synonyms by meaning
nouna reflective thinker characterized by quiet contemplation
nouna heavy tool of stone or iron (usually with a flat base and a handle) that is used to grind and mix material (as grain or drugs or pigments) against a slab of stone
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
muller · noun
From mull (“to heat and spice, etc.”, verb) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).
Full word history & related roots →muller · noun
- Proto-Indo-European*(s)meld-“to melt; to soften”
- Latinmollis“soft”
- Latinmolliāre
- Vulgar Latin*molliāre
- Old Frenchmoillier
- Middle Englishmollen
- Englishmuller
From mull (“to mix (clay and sand) under a roller to prepare a mould”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns). Mull is possibly derived from mull (“(chiefly Northern England) to grind to powder, crumble, powder, pulverize”), from Middle English mollen, mullen (“to moisten (something); to soften (something) by making wet; to become liquid; to drizzle; to crumble or soften (something) by grinding; to fondle or pet (something)”), from Old French moillier, muillier (“to make wet”) (modern French mouiller), and from its etymon Vulgar Latin *molliāre, *mulliāre (“to make wet”), from Latin molliāre, the present active infinitive of molliō (“to soften”), from Latin mollis (“soft”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)meld- (“to melt; to soften”) or *melh₂- (“to crush, grind”)) + -iō (suffix forming factitive verbs from adjectives).
More words from Middle English, Old French, Vulgar Latin
Full word history & related roots →muller · noun, verb
- Frenchmolette“pestle”
- Proto-Indo-European*melh₂-“to crush, grind”
- Latinmolere
- Old Frenchmoldre
- Middle Englishmolour
- Englishmuller
The noun is derived from Late Middle English molour, moler; further origin uncertain, possibly: * from mull (“(Northern England) something reduced to fine particles”, noun) or mull (“(chiefly Northern England) to grind to powder, crumble, powder, pulverize”, verb) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns) (see etymology 2); or * from an unattested Anglo-Norman or Middle French noun, from Old French moldre, moudre (“to grind”) (modern French moudre), from Latin molere, the present active infinitive of molō (“to grind, to mill”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to crush, grind”); or * a variant of mullet (“(obsolete) stone for grinding”) + -er; mullet is derived from French molette (“pestle”). The verb is derived from the noun.
More words from Middle English, Old French, Latin
Full word history & related roots →muller · verb
- Proto-Indo-European*mer-“to die; to disappear”
- Angloromanimul-
- Englishmuller
Probably from Angloromani mul-, the preterite stem of mer- (“to die”) (compare mullered, mullo (“dead”, adjective); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to die; to disappear”)) + English -er (suffix forming frequentative verbs).
More words from Angloromani, Proto-Indo-European
Full word history & related roots →muller · verb
- GermanMüller
- Englishmuller
Borrowed from German Müller, the surname of Franz Müller (1840–1864), a German tailor who was convicted and hanged for the robbery and murder of Thomas Briggs, a British banker, on a train. Müller was found in possession of, among other things, Briggs’ top hat, which he had altered by reducing the height of the crown by half and resewing it to the brim.
More words from German
Full word history & related roots →Muller · proper noun
- GermanMüller“miller”
- EnglishMuller
Borrowed from German Müller (“miller”). Doublet of Miller.
More words from German
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with muller
All rhymes →Cite this entry
muller. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/muller
“muller.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/muller. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “muller,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/muller.
Source: muller on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.