mulberry 
the mulberry-tree. 2. Any tree of the genus 
Morns. The black mulberry, M. niyra, native somewhere 
in western Asia, has been known in Europe from antiquity. 
It yields a pleasant dark-colored fruit, and its leaves were 
formerly in extensive use for feeding silkworms. The white 
mulberry, M. alba, introduced from China much later, has 
almost superseded the black in silkworm-culture. It has 
been to some extent introduced into the United States. The 
red mulberry, M. rubra, a native of the United States, is the 
largest species of the genus. Its wood, which is very 
durable in contact with the soil, is used for posts, and for 
cooperage, sliip- and boat-building, etc. Its leaves are 
less valued for silk-production than those of the other 
species, but its fruit is excellent. The Mexican mulberry, 
extending into Texas, etc., is M. microphylla. 
3. One of several plants of other genera. 
4. In embryo!., a mulberry-mass or mulberry- 
germ; a morula. See cut under gastrulation. 
Dwarf mulberry. See knoutberry and cloudberry. 
French mulberry. See Callicarpa. Indian mulber- 
ry, a small tree, Morinda citrifolia. See ach-root, al-root, 
and Morinda. Mulberry-silkworm, JSumbiix man, 
which feeds on the mulberry. Native mulberry of 
Australia. See Hedycarya. Paper-mulberry. See 
Broussonetia. 
II. a. Relating to the mulberry (the tree or 
its fruit) ; having the shape or color of a mul- 
berry (fruit). Mulberry calculus. See calculus. 
mulberry-faced (mul'ber-i-fast), a. Having 
the face deep-red, the color of a mulberry. 
Vile as those that made 
The mulberry-faced Dictator's orgies worse 
Than aught they fable of the quiet Gods. 
Tennyson, Lucretius. 
mulberry-germ (mul'ber-i-jerm), . Same as 
mulberry-mass. 
mulberry-juice (mul'ber-i-jos), n. The Mori 
succus of the British Pharmacopoeia ; the juice 
of the ripe fruit of Mortis nigra : used in medi- 
cine as a refreshing, slightly laxative drink. 
mulberry-mass (mul'ber-i-mas), n. In em- 
brynl., a morula. Also mulberry-germ. 
mulberry-rash (mul'ber-i-rash), n. The char- 
acteristic eruption of typhus fever. 
mulberry-tree (mul'ber-i-tre), . See mul- 
berry, 2. 
mulch, a., n., and v. See mulsh. 
mulct (mulkt), n. [= OF. multe = Sp. Pg. It. 
multa,<.1i. mulcta, multa, a fine, penalty; a word 
of Sabine origin.] 1. A fine or other penalty 
imposed on a person for some offense or misde- 
meanor, usually a pecuniary fine. 
Or if this superstition they refuse, 
Some mulct the poor Confessors' backs must bruise. 
J. Beaumont, Psyche, v. 120. 
It seeks to saue the Soule by humbling the body, not by 
Imprisonment, or pecuniary mulct. 
Milton, Reformation in Eng., ii. 
2f. A blemish; a defect. 
The abstract of what's excellent in the sex, 
But to their mulcts and frailties a mere stranger. 
Maseinger, Emperor of the East, iv. 5. 
= Syn. 1. Amercement, forfeit, forfeiture, penalty, fine. 
mulct (mulkt), v. t. [= OF. multer, F. muleter 
= Sp. Pg. multar = It. multare, < L. multare, 
mulctare, fine,punish, < multa, mulcta, a fine: see 
mulct, n.] 1. To punish by fine or forfeiture ; 
deprive of some possession as a penalty; de- 
prive: formerly with either the crime or the 
criminal as object, now only with the latter: 
followed by in or of before the thing : as, to 
mulct a person in $300; to mulct a person of 
something. 
All fraud must be ... soundly punished, and mulcted 
with a due satisfaction. Bp. Hall, Cases of Conscience, i. 6. 
"I will not spare you," was his favourite text; 
Nor did he spare, but raised them many a pound ; 
Ev'n me he mulct for my poor rood of ground. 
Crabbe, Works, I. 130. 
2f. To punish, in general. 
How many poor creatures hast thou mulcted with death, 
for thine own pleasure ! Bp. Hail, A Meditation of Death. 
mulctary (mulk'ta-ri), a. [< L. mulcta, a fine, 
penalty, + -ary.] Consisting of or paid as a 
pecuniary penalty ; imposing such a penalty. 
mulctuary (mulk'tu-a-ri), a. [Irreg. for mulc- 
tary, the term, -u-ary appar. conformed to that 
of sumptuary, etc.] Same as mulctary. 
muldet, n. and v. A Middle English form of 
mold*. 
mule (mul), n. [Early mod. E. also moil, moyle; 
< ME. mule, muile, < OF. mule, F. mule = Sp. Pg. 
It. mulo = AS. mul = D. mutt = OHG. mul, 
MHG. mul, mule = Iee\. mull=Sw. mta=:Dan. 
mule ; also, in comp., D. muilezel = MHG. mule- 
sel, G. maulesel = Dan. mulaisel = Sw. mulasna 
(D. ezel, etc., ass: see ass 1 ); MHG. multier, G. 
iininl-thier = Dan. muldyr (OHG. MHG. tier, G. 
tnier, Dan. dyr, beast, = E. liter) ; < L. mulus, a 
mule. The E. mule does not come from the 
AS. mul, which would give a mod. form "motel 
(of. owl, < AS. ule) ; it depends on the OF. or 
3890 
the orig. L.] 1. A hybrid animal generated 
between the ass and the horse. The cross is usually 
between a jackass and a mare, that between a stallion and 
a she-ass being called a hinny. The mule is a valuable 
product of artificial selection, in some respects superior to 
either parent, and is extensively bred in America (Ken- 
tucky, Missouri, Mexico, etc.), in Spain, in Poitou (FranceX 
etc. It retains to some extent the specific characters of the 
ass, in the comparatively large head, long ears, reached 
mane, slim tail, and narrow, pointed hoofs, but acquires 
much of the size, strength, and symmetry of the mare. The 
animal matures slowly, is very long-lived, little liable to dis- 
ease, and able to do more work than a horse under hard 
treatment and poor fare. Being also very agile and sure- 
footed, it is serviceable as a pack-animal in countries 
where a horse could scarcely be used. The mule is not less 
docile and intelligent than the horse, and its strength is, 
in proportion to its size, probably greater. Mules are or- 
dinarily incapable of procreation, and such seems to be al- 
ways the case with the jack ; but instances of impregnation 
of the hinny by the male ass or by a stallion are not rare. 
They drewe owt of dromondaries dyverse lordes, 
Moyllez mylke whitte, and mervaillous bestez, 
Elfaydes, and Arrabys, and olyfauntez noble, 
Ther are of the Oryent, with honourable kynges. 
Xorte Arthure (E. E. T. S.), 1. 2287. 
So is the mule, whose panch being full with sucking, she 
kickes her dam. Dekker, Catch Pole's Masque (1613). 
2. A hybrid in general; a mongrel; a cross 
between different animals. 
No certain species, sure ; a kind of mule 
That's half an ethnic, half a Christian. 
B. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. 1. 
3. The scaup-duck, Fuligula mania. Rev. C. 
Swainson. [Prov. Eng.] 4. In bot., a plant or 
vegetable produced by impregnating the pistil 
of one species with the fecundating element of 
another; a hybrid. 
Several mules have been produced between the species 
of this genus (Verbascum). London. 
5. In spinning, a machine invented by Samuel 
Crompton (completed 1779), in which the rov- 
ings are delivered from a series of sets of 
drawing-rollers to spindles placed on a car- 
riage which travels away from the rollers while 
the thread is being twisted, and returns toward 
the rollers while the thread is being wound : so 
named because it was a combination of the 
drawing-rollers of Arkwright and the jenny of 
Hargreaves. 6. In numis., a coin, token, or 
medal which, owing to mistake or caprice, con- 
sists of two obverse or two reverse types, or of 
which the obverse and reverse types are acci- 
dentally associated. Thus, a denarius having a head 
of Tiberius on each side, or a denarius having the head 
of Tiberius on the obverse and a reverse type struck from 
one of the coin-dies of Augustus, would be a mule. 
The encouragement given to the creation of new varie- 
ties [of English tradesmen's tokens in the eighteenth cen- 
tury] by combining obverse and reverse dies that had no 
real connection was satirized by a token bearing the re- 
verse type of an ass [that is, a token-collector] and mule 
saluting each other, [and] having for the legend *' Be as- 
sured, friend mule, you shall never want my protection." 
The very appropriate term mule was ever after applied to 
these illegitimate varieties. 
T. Sharp, Cat. of Chetwynd Coll. of Tokens, p. iv. 
7. A slipper without heel-piece or quarter. 
8. The foot of a wine-glass. 9. A disease in 
horses. 
There are several kinds of scratches, distinguished by va- 
rious names, as crepances, rat-tails, mules, kibes, pains, &c. 
Keei, Cyc. 
mule-armadillo (murar-ma-diFo), n. A book- 
name of Dasypus hybridus. 
mule-canary (mul'ka-na"ri), n. A hybrid be- 
tween the canary and some other finch. 
mule-chair (mul'char), n. Same as cacolet. 
mule-deer (mul'der), . The blacktail or black- 
tailed deer, Cariacus macrotis : so called from the 
large ears. It is decidedly larger and more stately than 
the Virginia or white-tailed deer, and is next in size to the 
mulier 
Blacktail, or Mule-deer (Cariacus macrotis}. 
wapiti and caribou among the North American Cenidce. 
The tail is very short and slim, and mostly white, but with 
a black brush at the end. The antlers are characteristic, 
being doubly dichotomous that is, the beam forks, and 
each tine forks again ; whereas in C. mrginianw the beam 
is curved and all the tines spring from it. The animal is 
the commonest deer in many wooded and mountainous 
Head of Mule-deer Fawn. 
parts of western North America, but is not found east of 
the great plains. 
mule-doubler (mul'dub"ler), . In cotton- 
manuf., a machine upon which the operations of 
doubling and twisting are performed with many 
spindles, and which in general mechanism re- 
sembles the spinning-machine called mule. 
mule-driver (mul'drFver), n. [= D. muildrij- 
ver = MHG. mfiltriber = Dan. muldriver.] A 
driver of mules ; a muleteer. 
muleherdt, . [ME. mulehyrde; < mule + herd 2 .] 
A keeper or driver of a mule or mules. Cath. 
Ana., p_. 246. 
mule-killer (mul'kil'er), . The whip-tailed 
scorpion, Tlielyplionus giganteus. Also called 
nigger-killer and grampus. [Florida.] 
mule-Skinner (muTskm"er), . Aprairie mule- 
driver. [Western U. 8.] 
Mule-skinners, stalking beside their slow-moving teams. 
T. Jioosevelt, The Century, XXXV. 499. 
mule-Spinner (mul'spin"er), n. One who spins 
with a mule. 
mulett, n. [< F. mulet, a mule, < mule, < L. mu- 
lus, a mule : see mule. Cf. mulatto.] A mule. 
muleteer (mu-le-teV), . [Early mod. E. mu- 
leter, muliter ; < F. muletier (= Sp. mulatero, 
muletero = Pg. mulateiro = It. mulattiere), < 
mulet, a mule : see mulet.] A mule-driver. 
We agreed with certain Muccermen, so call they their 
muliters of Alleppo, to carry us unto Tripoly. 
Sandys, Travailes, p. 156. 
mule-twist (mul'twist), n. Cotton yarn spun 
on a machine called a mule. The yarn produced 
by mule-spinning is of more uniform quality than that 
spun on the original water-frame. See mule, 6, and water- 
frame. 
mulewort (mul'wert), n. A fern of the genus 
Hemionitis. 
muley (mu'li), a. and n. [Msomooly, moily, moo- 
ley, mulley ; origin uncertain ; perhaps, through 
an OF. form mulle (?), < L. mutilatus, mutilated: 
see mutilate. Cf. mull 5 .] I. a. Hornless: said 
of cattle. 
Muley cattle have been in Virginia for a great many 
years, and their descendants have also been uniformly 
polled. Amer. Nat., XXII. 802. 
II. n. 1 . Any cow : a colloquial abbreviation 
of muley cow. 2. Same as muley-saw. 
muley-axle (mu'li-ak"sl), n. A car-axle having 
no collars at the ends. 
muley-head (mu'li-hed), n. The sliding guide- 
carriage of a muley-saw. 
muley-Saw (mu'li-sa), n. A mill-saw which is 
not strained in a gate or sash, but has a rapid 
reciprocating motion, and has guide-carriages 
above and below. E. H. Knight. 
mulga-grass (mul'gii-gras), . See Neuracline. 
Mulgedium (mul-je'di-um), n. [NL. (Cassini, 
1824), < L. mulgere, milk : see milk.] A section 
of the genus Lactuca ; the blue lettuce, formerly 
regarded as a distinct genus. See Lactuca. 
muliebrity (mu-li-eb'ri-ti), n. [< LL. nniliebri- 
ta(t-)s, womanhood, < L. muliebris, of woman, 
womanly, < mulier, a woman: see mulier 1 .] 1. 
Womanhood; the state of puberty in a woman. 
2. Womanishness ; womanliness. 
There was a little toss in their movement, full of mulieb- 
rity. 0. W. Holmes, Old Vol. of Life, p. 32. 
[Rare in both uses.] 
mulier 1 (mu'li-er), n. [Now only in legal use, in 
L. form; < ME. muliere, moillere, moylere,< OF. 
mulier, mulier, moiler, moillicr, muiller, etc., = 
Sp. mujer = Pg. mulher = It. moglie, moi/li< i'n. 
mogliere, a woman, wife, < L. mulier, a woman. 
There is no probability in the old etym. (given 
tiy Isidore) which explains mulier as if *mollier, 
< mollis, soft.] In lair, a woman; a wife. 
mulier 2 (mu'li-er), H. [< ME. mulirr, < ML. 
(AL.) mulier, a child born in legitimate mar- 
riage, < L. mulier, a woman: see mulier^.] A 
legitimate son, in contradistinction to one born 
out of wedlock. Mulier puisne, a younger sou born 
