maul
(môl)
[Middle English malle, from Old French mail, from Latin malleus.]
noun
- A heavy, long-handled hammer used especially to drive stakes, piles, or wedges.
- A heavy hammer having a wedge-shaped head and used for splitting logs.
- 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.
- The mass of players during such a play.
transitive verb: mauled, also malled, maul·ing, mall·ing, mauls, malls
- 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
- To handle roughly: The package was mauled by the careless messenger.
- To split (wood) with a maul and wedge.
derivatives
- mauĺer
- noun
