MULE

n.

4 definitions — Webster’s Dictionary (1828)


1.
n.

A hybrid animal; specifically, one generated between an ass and a mare, sometimes a horse and a she-ass. See Hinny.

2.
n.

A plant or vegetable produced by impregnating the pistil of one species with the pollen or fecundating dust of another; -- called also hybrid.

3.
n.

A very stubborn person.

4.
n.

A machine, used in factories, for spinning cotton, wool, etc., into yarn or thread and winding it into cops; -- called also jenny and mule-jenny. Mule armadillo (Zoöl.), a long-eared armadillo (Tatusia hybrida), native of Buenos Ayres; -- called also mulita. See Illust. under Armadillo. -- Mule deer (Zoöl.), a large deer (Cervus, or Cariacus, macrotis) of the Western United States. The name refers to its long ears. -- Mule pulley (Mach.), an idle pulley for guiding a belt which transmits motion between shafts that are not parallel. -- Mule twist, cotton yarn in cops, as spun on a mule; -- in distinction from yarn spun on a throstle frame.