mulligan

plural mulligans

1. abbreviationcountableellipsisuncountableEllipsis of mulligan stew.

   "I've got a mulligan on the stove upstairs," grinned Sloan, getting out of his chair.

   1918 September, W. C. Tuttle, “A Rootin' Tooter”, in Boys' Life, volume 8, number 9, page 5

   2 more examples

   Another afternoon Dove jungled up with four others beside a creek.[…] A couple of the boys got a mulligan going. Dove lay naked in the creek smoking a cigarette and smelling the mulligan.

   1956, Nelson Algren, A Walk on the Wild Side, paperback edition, published 1998, →ISBN, pages 90–91

   When we did, nobody was there, but we found two empty sleeping bags and some mulligan in a pot on a stove.

   p. 1932, a. 1998, Erling Strom, as quoted in, 1998, Louis W. Dawson, Wild Snow, page 105 http://books.google.com/books?id=D_1_rNG1rfYC&pg=PA105&dq=mulligan

2. countableuncountablegolfAn unpenalized chance to re-take a stroke that went awry.

   If you lose your drive in the water, take a mulligan and try again.

3. countableuncountablecollectible card gamesAn opportunity (sometimes penalized) for a player to reshuffle their cards and draw a new initial hand at the beginning of a game.

   Pokemon has a mulligan rule: if you have no Pokemon in your opening hand, you show it to your opponent and redraw. You may also take a mulligan, I believe, if your opening hand has no basic power cards.

   2009 February 17, LSJ, “Re: Why doesn't VTES have a mulligan rule?”, in rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad (Usenet), message-ID <soDml.10826$hc1.10451@flpi150.ffdc.sbc.com>

   1 more example

   April 1997 introduced the modern 'Paris mulligan' rule; previously a mulligan required either all land or no land in the hand and could be taken only once, now the mulligan can be taken as many times as desired with any hand, but reduces starting hand size by one each time the mulligan is taken.

   2009 June 27, Zoe Stephenson, “Magic: The Gathering Rules FAQ, v4.03 (part 2)”, in rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (Usenet), message-ID <games/magic-t-g/rules/part2_1246075912@rtfm.mit.edu>

4. broadlycountableuncountableA second chance.

   Don't do poorly in your first interview; you won't get a mulligan.

   4 more examples

   It was a low moment when he lost to a smooth-talking Southern smart-ass like Bill Clinton—good thing he got a mulligan, sort of, when Georgie ran.

   2006, Shelley Lewis, Naked Republicans, Villard, →ISBN, page 172

   While I too believe in investing in alternative energy resources, you don't get a mulligan when a nuclear weapon or a dirty bomb goes off.

   2007, Steve Alten, The Shell Game, →ISBN, page 279

   I wasn't sure, but I had a hunch all I needed was a mulligan. If I could only reconnect with her somehow and begin all over again.

   2008, Ross Dale, Embedded, Sourcebooks, →ISBN, page 202

   OK, we don’t give politicians who lost an election the opportunity for a mulligan, even when they falsely claim that the election was stolen.

   2023 January 17, Paul Krugman, “Will It Be Morning in Joe Biden’s America?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 23 Feb 2023

plural Mulligans · alternative Mullican

1. A surname from Irish.