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▪ I. mallet, n.1|ˈmælɪt|
Forms: 5 mailȝet, mailet, maylet(te, -leot, -lat, 5–6 maillet, 6 mayllet, mallette, 6–7 malet, 6– mallet.
[a. F. maillet wooden hammer, dim. of mail maul n.1]
1. a. A kind of hammer, normally of wood, but sometimes of other materials, smaller than a maul or beetle. It has many diverse forms, according to the purpose for which it is used.
The mason's mallet is a broad, nearly cylindrical mass of wood, with a short handle set perpendicularly in the middle of the upper surface, and is used for driving a cold chisel; a similar implement is used for driving wedges. The carpenter's mallet for driving a chisel or gouge has usually a massive square or barrel-shaped head.
c1425Wyntoun Chron. iii. i. 104 Þe nayl þan til his hewide scho set, And straik on fast wiþe þat mailȝet. c1440Promp. Parv. 323/1 Malyet, betyl. c1475Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 805/16 Hic porticulus, a maylat. 1523Fitzherb. Husb. §136 A mallet to dryue the knyfe and thy wedge in-to the tree. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 343 b, The bishop striketh on the gate with a golden mallet. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 108 b, For Pullies..and Mallettes, the meetest are the wilde Oliue, the Boxe. 1600Holland Livy xxvii. xlix. 664 A carpenters chissell and a mallet. 1660Boyle New Exp. Phys. Mech. xx. 146 The Vessel..was warily..struck in divers places with a Wooden Mallet. 1666Dryden Ann. Mirab. cxlvi, Their left hand does the caulking-iron guide, The rattling mallet with the right they lift. 1683Moxon Mech. Exerc. II. 30 Printers Mallets have a Cilindrick Head, and a round Handle. 1720Gay Poems (1745) I. 34 The weighty mallet deals resounding blows. 1828Scott Tales Grandf. Ser. ii. xviii, Mitchell..endured nine blows of the mallet with the utmost firmness. 1844H. Stephens Bk. Farm 1269 The stake e is driven into the ground by the wooden mallet. 1860Eng. & For. Min. Gloss. (Cornw. Terms), Mallet, an instrument used with the borer. 1875Knight Dict. Mech. II. 1749 s.v. Plugger, The electric mallet is an automatic dental instrument for condensing the filling or plug in a tooth by a rapid succession of strokes imparted by means of electro-magnetism. 1895Arnold & Sons Catal. Surg. Instr. 107 Mallet for use with Osteotomy Chisel, boxwood.
b. Games. (a) The wooden hammer used for striking the balls in the game of croquet; also transf. (with qualifying adj.), one who wields the mallet, a croquet-player. (b) The ‘stick’ used at polo.
1868Chambers's Encycl. X. 483/2 [Croquet] The Mallets should be light and handy; with ash shafts, and boxwood or ash heads. The heads of the mallets are of various shapes—as the dice-box, which is the most common shape; the plane-convex, the hammer-head, and the cue-shape. 1877M. M. Grant Sun-Maid ix, Bébé was the ‘crack’ mallet of the [croquet] club. 1868Holme Lee B. Godfrey lxi, She..dropped her mallet. 1897Outing (U.S.) XXX. 483/1 The mallets or sticks [in Polo] are generally of malacca cane.
c. slang. The fist.
1821Sporting Mag. VIII. 234 Powel..went to work with his mallets at a tremendous rate.
†d. Phrase. as sad (i.e. dull) as any mallet.
1645Milton Colast. Wks. 1851 IV. 357, I amaze me, though the fancy of this doubt be as obtuse and sad as any mallet, how the Licenser could sleep out all this.
†e. fig. A person or agency that smites, beats down or crushes. Obs. [After L. malleus, F. maillet: cf. hammer n. 1 b.]
1525Ld. Berners Froiss. II. clxxxvi. [clxxxii.] 232 The malettes were laide downe, to the entent to kepe vnder the parisyence. 1561T. Norton Calvin's Inst. ii. v. (1634) 138 Sometimes like a mallet, to strike the Israelites. 1577–87Holinshed Chron. (1807–8) II. 430 A verie mallet of such strangers as sought preferment in this realme by the popes provisions. 1584R. Scot Discov. Witchcr. xvi. i. (1886) 396 The booke called A Mallet to braine witches. 1823[see malleter].
f. Mus. A light hammer used for playing the vibraphone, xylophone, or similar instrument.
1930Melody Maker Jan. 69/2 You should use at least three different ‘hardnesses’ of mallets for solo playing. 1968Ibid. 23 Nov. 18 Having started with four mallets right from the beginning, I found myself playing the instrument in piano style.
†2. A mace. Obs.
c1475Partenay 4698 A [s]quare maillet the Geant gan hold. Ibid. 4716 No-thyng was he wurth, right noght myght he do, Where cursedly had done with his maillet soo. c1500Melusine 329 The Geaunt..held in his hand a gret mayllet. 1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cccxcvii. 278 b, Also they had seruantes right well harnessed, bearynge great malettes of yron and stele, to confounde helmes.
†3. Antiq. = malleolus 3. Obs.
1541Paynel Catiline, Cicero's Orat. xviii. 32 b, Let them leaue lying in awayte about the consuls house,..to prepare mallettes and torches to set fyre on the citie. Ibid. note, Mallettes were lyke arrowes whiche were caste burnynge.
4. A distemper in cattle. ? Obs.
1600Surflet Country Farm i. xxiii. 132 The stithie, hapning to the oxe, being otherwise called a mallet or hammer. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 172/2 Diseases in Cows... The Stithie, or the Mallet, or Hammer.
5. Anat. = malleus 1.
1796in Nemnich Polyglotten-Lex. v. 1877Burnett Ear 68 The malleus, or mallet, received its name from Vesalius.
6. attrib. and Comb., as mallet-form, mallet-head, mallet-pate, mallet-paw; mallet-shaped adj.; mallet finger Med., a condition in which a finger is permanently flexed at the distal joint, usu. resulting from a blow to the tip of the extended finger, which ruptures the extensor tendon; a finger so affected; † mallet-fish (see quot.); mallet-flower, any plant of the genus Tupistra (Cent. Dict.); mallet-headed a., (a) applied to a chisel made to be struck with a mallet; (b) having a head shaped like that of a mallet; mallet-headed oyster, an oyster of the genus Malleus; mallet-shoot, a hammer-shaped slip of a tree or shrub for planting.
1894Gould Dict. Med. 472/2 *Mallet finger, a deformity of a finger characterized by deficient extension or undue flexion of the terminal phalanx. 1934Key & Conwell Managem. Fractures xx. 718 (heading) Drop or mallet finger (baseball finger). 1956Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 21 July 1135 (heading) New technique for treatment of mallet fingers and fractures of distal phalanx. 1967Punch 29 Mar. 458/3 Less heroically, women can contract Mallet Finger by ‘tucking the bed-clothes under the mattress when bed-making’.
1611Cotgr., Cagnole, the rauenous, and ougly dogfish, called (of the fashion of his head) the *Mallet-fish.
a1697Aubrey Lives, Hobbes (1898) I. 348 His head was..of a *mallet-forme (approved by the physiologers).
1707–12Mortimer Husb. (1721) II. 59 Which Wood is useful for..*Mallet-heads [etc.]..being very hard and durable. 1897Outing (U.S.) XXX. 483/1 The mallet-head now used [in Polo] is generally cigar-shaped, 2 inches thick and 8 or 9 inches long.
1906E. Johnston Writing & Illuminating xvii. 396 The chisels are either Hammer-headed or *Mallet-headed. 1909Westm. Gaz. 26 Oct. 5/2 The announcement made by the Rules of Golf Committee on the subject of mallet-headed clubs will have far-spreading consequences.
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Ostrea, The malleum, or brachiated oister; called the *mallet-headed oister.
1823Blackw. Mag. XIV. 520 As for the *mallet-pate, pig-eye Chinese.
1902N. Howard Kiartan 50 What! Art thou mum? Old tramp, old *mallet-paw [addressing Thor].
1901N. & Q. 9th Ser. VIII. 215/1 A *mallet-shaped head for driving in the stakes of the sheepfold.
1745tr. Columella's Husb. iii. xvii, They so planted the *mallet-shoot, that some part of the old branch did stick to the young one. 1879Lewis & Short Lat. Dict., Malleolus,..a mallet-shoot for planting.
▪ II. † ˈmallet, n.2 Obs. rare—1.
In mod. Dicts. malet.
[ad. Sp. maleta = F. mallette, dim. of malle mail n.3]
A little bag or portmanteau.
1612Shelton Quix. iii. ix. (1620) 207 Sancho past ouer the mallet, without leauing a corner of it, or the cushion vnsearched. 1847Webster (citing Shelton), Malet, a little bag or budget; a portmanteau.
▪ III. mallet, n.3|ˈmælət|
Also 9 mallat.
[ad. (probable) Aboriginal (Nyungar, W. Austral.) malard.]
Any of several Western Australian eucalypts, having a bark rich in tannin. Also, the bark of such a tree; in full mallet-bark, mallet wood.
1837G. F. Moore Evidences Inland Sea 49 Here we saw another variety of the Eucalyptus, called ‘Mallat’. 1897L. Lindley-Cowen W. Austral. Settler's Guide ii. ii. 215 Mallet, or fluted gum, or gimlet wood (E. salubris, F. von Mueller). 1905Chambers's Jrnl. Aug. 622/1 The wattle-barks.., which are used in large quantities in Australia for tanning sheepskins, are being replaced by a material called mallet-bark. 1919Jrnl. Amer. Leather Chemists' Assoc. XIV. 311 The eucalypt tannins, especially mallet, may give much better results when they are used in a drum tannage, but at present they cannot be considered an important factor in the production of Australian leather. 1921Jrnl. Soc. Leather Trades' Chemists V. 368 In West Australia several distinct species are classified locally as ‘mallets’ and are stripped and sold as ‘mallet’. 1934A. L. Howard Timbers of World (ed. 2) 308 Malletwood, brown, Rhodamnia argentea.., Queensland. Also known as white myrtle, blackeye, or brush turpentine... The principal uses are for mallets, heads of mauls, etc. 1969T. H. Everett Living Trees of World xxvii. 262/2 Because its bark has the highest tannin content of any commercial tanbark, the brown mallet..is cultivated in Australia. 1973G. M. Chippendale Eucalypts W. Austral. Goldfields viii. 91/2 The term ‘mallet’ was applied to several tall, smooth-barked trees.
▪ IV. mallet, v. Obs. exc. arch.|ˈmælɪt|
[f. mallet n.1]
trans. To beat, hammer; lit. and fig.
1594Lyly Mother Bombie ii. i. 59 (Bond) My head is full of hammers, and they haue so maletted my wit, that I am almost a malcontent. a1633Austin Medit. (1635) 108 They Malletted him with their cruell Fists; as if he had bin Brasse indeede. c1840Mrs. Browning Lett. R. H. Horne (1877) I. iii. 19 Your Elizabethan fashion of malleting down your metaphors..produces a diction of extraordinary power.
▪ V. mallet
erron. form of mallard. |