mallet - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

A rubber mallet

From Middle English malet, maylet, from Old French mallet, maillet (“a wooden hammer, mallet”), diminutive of mal, mail (“a hammer”), from Latin malleus (“a hammer, mall, mallet”).

mallet (plural mallets)

  1. A type of hammer with a larger-than-usual head made of wood, rubber or similar non-iron material, used by woodworkers for driving a tool, such as a chisel. A kind of maul.
    Carpenters use mallets for assembling.
    We used a mallet to drive the tent pegs into the ground.
  2. (weaponry) A weapon resembling the tool, but typically much larger.
    • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 51:
      The Mallet of arms, according to the representation of it given by Father Daniel, exactly resembles the wooden instrument of that name, now in use, except in the length of the handle, it was like the hammer of arms, to be used with both hands, indeed it differed very little from that weapon in its form.
  3. (music) A small hammer-like tool used for playing certain musical instruments.
  4. (games) A light beetle with a long handle used in playing croquet.
    • 1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 120:
      I had had no opportunity as yet of passing on Poirot’s message to Lawrence. But now, as I strolled out on the lawn, still nursing a grudge against my friend’s high-handedness, I saw Lawrence on the croquet lawn, aimlessly knocking a couple of very ancient balls about, with a still more ancient mallet.
  5. (sports) The stick used to strike the ball in the sport of polo.
    • 2016 September 13, Tim Dowling, “Order force: the old grammar rule we all obey without realising”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      I regularly have cause to recall a scene from a novel called Madder Music, by Peter de Vries, in which the main character, a writer who specialises in polo, hears a match announcer telling newcomers to the ground that, contrary to popular belief, the ball is struck with the side of the mallet, rather than the end.

small maul

instrument for playing polo

mallet (third-person singular simple present mallets, present participle malleting, simple past and past participle malleted)

  1. (transitive) To beat or strike with, or as if with, a mallet.
    • 2007, John Geddes, Highway to Hell, page 220:
      […] and when a couple of insurgents ran in to make the capture she malleted them with her rifle.

māllet

  1. third-person singular imperfect active subjunctive of mālō