malleen.
/ˈmali/, U.S. /ˈmæli/, Australian English /ˈmæli/ 1.
a. More fully mallee scrub. A vegetation community consisting of dense scrub dominated by low-growing bushy eucalypts, characteristic of semi-desert areas of Victoria and some other parts of southern Australia.
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the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > non-British trees or shrubs > Australasian trees > [noun] > eucalyptus trees
yellow box1662
gum tree1676
white gum tree1733
whip-stick1782
peppermint1790
red gum tree1790
red mahogany1798
white gum1798
box1801
blue gum1802
eucalyptus1809
box tree1819
black-butted gum1820
bloodwood1827
white ash1830
blackbutt1833
morrel1837
mountain ash1837
mallee scrub1845
apple gum1846
flooded gum1847
Moreton Bay ash1847
mallee1848
swamp gum1852
box-gum1855
manna gum1855
white top1856
river gum1860
grey box1861
woolly butt1862
marlock1863
fever tree1867
red ironbark1867
river white gum1867
karri1870
yellow jacket1876
eucalypt1877
yapunyah1878
coolibah1879
scribbly gum1883
forest mahogany1884
yellow jack1884
rose gum1885
Jimmy Low1887
nankeen gum1889
slaty gum1889
sugar-gum1889
apple box1890
Murray red gum1895
creek-gum1898
eucalyptian1901
forest red gum1904
river red gum1920
napunyah1921
whitewash gum1923
ghost gum1928
snow gum1928
Sydney blue gum1932
salmon gum1934
lapunyah1940
1845 Standard (Melbourne) 7 June 2/6 The stock..are..driven into an almost impenetrable scrub, termed by the natives ‘Malley’.
1857 W. Howitt Tallangetta II. xii. 2 This Mallee scrub..consists of a dense wood of a dwarf species of gum-tree.
1898 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Romance of Canvas Town 37 Far off, amidst the sea-like expanse of the mallee..rise sombre, sharply-defined peaks and ranges.
1911 E. M. Clowes On Wallaby ix. 249 On the Wimmera Plains is massed the dwarf eucalyptus known as the Mallee Scrub, the roots of which make such ideal firewood.
1936 I. L. Idriess Cattle King ii. 10 They passed through the mallee belt, then out on to plain country.
1944 A. Russell Bush Ways xxii. 104 I think of the mallee scrubs and red gum fringes of the lower Murray River.
1945 S. J. Baker Austral. Lang. 184 To describe the ‘scrub’ of northern Victoria as the Mallee.
1966 G. Durrell Two in Bush v. 166 Mallee scrub consists of a small species of eucalyptus between six and twenty feet high, and in places the trees grow very close together, their branches entwining and forming a continuous canopy.
1990 L. Battle Past is Another Country (1991) 10 It would be good fun to help clear the mallee, cutting and burning it up in a bonza fire.
b. More fully mallee country. Any of the semi-desert areas of Australia in which the principal natural vegetation is mallee scrub.
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the world > the earth > land > landscape > wild or uncultivated land > [noun] > barren land or desert > specific
Sahara1613
sertão1816
mallee1851
hammada1853
erg1875
1851 Empire (Sydney) 13 Feb. 3/3 The flock masters in the Mallee country..are compelled to move their flocks.
1908 Chambers's Jrnl. Oct. 702/1 The mallee country of Victoria,..and the Darling Downs of southern Queensland are the natural granaries of the Commonwealth.
1924 New Settlers' Handbk. Victoria 16 Not so long since the Mallee was looked upon as being more or less a desert.
1958 E. O. Schlunke Village Hampden 127 ‘They're going to lynch you, Regerson,’ Harry told him, grinning. ‘You'd better take to the mallee before they come for you.’
1967 S. Wadham Austral. Farming 24 The mallee country further north was a different problem.
1985 H. Garner Postcards from Surfers 15 Auntie Lorna and my father come from the same town, Hopetoun in the Mallee.
2. Any of various low-growing eucalypts, esp. Eucalyptus dumosa, E. oleosa, and E. socialis, which have a number of spreading stems arising from an underground rootstock (instead of a single main trunk) and are characteristic of mallee scrub; the wood of any of these trees.
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the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > non-British trees or shrubs > Australasian trees > [noun] > eucalyptus trees
yellow box1662
gum tree1676
white gum tree1733
whip-stick1782
peppermint1790
red gum tree1790
red mahogany1798
white gum1798
box1801
blue gum1802
eucalyptus1809
box tree1819
black-butted gum1820
bloodwood1827
white ash1830
blackbutt1833
morrel1837
mountain ash1837
mallee scrub1845
apple gum1846
flooded gum1847
Moreton Bay ash1847
mallee1848
swamp gum1852
box-gum1855
manna gum1855
white top1856
river gum1860
grey box1861
woolly butt1862
marlock1863
fever tree1867
red ironbark1867
river white gum1867
karri1870
yellow jacket1876
eucalypt1877
yapunyah1878
coolibah1879
scribbly gum1883
forest mahogany1884
yellow jack1884
rose gum1885
Jimmy Low1887
nankeen gum1889
slaty gum1889
sugar-gum1889
apple box1890
Murray red gum1895
creek-gum1898
eucalyptian1901
forest red gum1904
river red gum1920
napunyah1921
whitewash gum1923
ghost gum1928
snow gum1928
Sydney blue gum1932
salmon gum1934
lapunyah1940
1848 W. Westgarth Austral. Felix 73 Laap, a sweet exudation from the leaf of the mallee (Eucalyptus dumosa).
1859 P. Just Australia 191 The men carry neither spears nor waddies; but each has several yamsticks made of mallee.
1920 R. T. Baker & H. G. Smith Res. Eucalypts (ed. 2) 185 The term ‘Mallee’ is applied in Australia to those Eucalypts which differ in their mode of growth from other species, by sending out a number of small stems from an expanded root-stock.
1979 N. Douglas & A. Heathcote Far Cry 18 The chooks were allowed to run free and nested in a big old mallee-gum in the ‘garden’.
1997 R. Fortey Life xiii. 367 There are great forest trees like ironbarks, or drought-resistant, dwarf mallees.
3. colloquial. (as) fit as a mallee bull: very fit and well; in robust health.
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1960 J. Morrison in Overland (Melbourne) Apr. 7 ‘All right. How's Bubby?’ ‘Fit as a Mallee bull! Got another tooth.’
1968 J. Kiddell Euloowirree Walkabout (1970) i. 3 Between them there were seventeen cups for competitive sport in the past year, and they were each as fit as a Mallee bull in a drought.
1981 Sun-Herald (Sydney) 14 June 151/4 He looked as fit as a Mallee bull.
Compounds
mallee bird n. now rare = mallee fowl n.
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the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > [noun] > member of Megapodidae (mound-builder) > leipoa ocellata (mallee fowl)
lowan1847
mallee bird1849
mallee hen1862
pheasant1893
mallee fowl1901
1849 Belfast Gaz. (Port Phillip) 30 Nov. 3/4 Mr White..has sent to Portland the drawing of ‘the Mallee bird’, which is peculiar to the Mallee scrub.
1860 G. Bennett Gatherings of Naturalist in Austral. viii. 174 That elegant creature, the Mallee Bird (Leipoa ocellata).
mallee fowl n. a megapode bird, Leipoa ocellata, of southern Australia, which inhabits mallee and other dry scrub; also called lowan.
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the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > [noun] > member of Megapodidae (mound-builder) > leipoa ocellata (mallee fowl)
lowan1847
mallee bird1849
mallee hen1862
pheasant1893
mallee fowl1901
1901 Emu 1 51 In the densest portion of the scrub, a Mallee Fowl's egg-mound was discovered.
1963 Times 12 Mar. p. x/7 The mallee fowl is one of the megapodiidae or mound-building birds of the dry interior.
1985 Sydney Morning Herald 17 Aug. 10/3 Pity the poor, hard-working male mallee fowl, nature's supporter of the feminist cause.
mallee hen n. = mallee fowl n.
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the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > [noun] > member of Megapodidae (mound-builder) > leipoa ocellata (mallee fowl)
lowan1847
mallee bird1849
mallee hen1862
pheasant1893
mallee fowl1901
1862 J. A. Patterson Gold Fields Victoria 15 All between and around is a mass of mallee and whipstick, in the shelter of which that strange bird, the mallee hen, builds her nest.
1929 ‘A. Russell’ Bungoona 74 You're about as cheerful as a Mallee hen with the toothache.
1981 B. J. Brock Catharsis 55 Looks like your Mallee Hen's safe, though.
mallee parakeet n. = mallee ringneck n.
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1898 E. E. Morris Austral Eng. 341 Mallee Parrakeet—Platycercus barnardi.
1912 Emu 12 118 Mallee Parrakeet..generally becomes vindictive when caged.
mallee parrot n. = mallee ringneck n.
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1932 H. Priest Call of Bush 162 Less commonly seen, but no less beautiful, is the Mallee Parrot.
mallee piker n. = piker n.2 2.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > group Ruminantia (sheep, goats, cows, etc.) > bull > [noun] > castrated or bullock > old
mossy-horn1885
piker1887
mallee piker1893
moss horn1923
1893 K. Mackay Out Back (ed. 2) III. vi. 265 Blowed if this cask ain't harder to round up nor a mallee piker.
1945 S. J. Baker Austral. Lang. iii. 67 Mallee pikers, stock that have run wild and deteriorated in condition.
mallee ringneck n. the east Australian parrot Barnardius barnardi (also called Platycercus barnardi), predominantly green with a blue back and yellow collar.
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1943 C. Barrett Austral. Animal Bk. 232 The Mallee ringneck..frequents trees growing along the banks of rivers and creeks.
1987 E. W. Burr Compan. Bird Med. viii. 46/1 Mallee Ringnecks (Barnardius barnardi).
mallee roller n. an agricultural implement used for clearing land, consisting of a heavy cylindrical object dragged across the scrub by horses or cattle.
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1910 Jrnl. Dept. Agric. Victoria (Austral.) 780 Mallee roller..may be either a log, an old boiler, or a specially constructed iron cylinder.
1977 R. E. Gregory Orig. Austral. Inventions 78 Mallee Rollers were pulled by horses or bullocks and either dragged the trees out..or smashed them down.
mallee root n. (a) the root of a mallee, used as a form of fuel; (b) Australian slang [rhyming slang; compare also root n.2 3, root v.2 6a.] , a prostitute.
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1892 Bulletin (Sydney) 27 Aug. 19/1 The old cronies sat together over a fire of mallee-root.
1941 S. J. Baker Pop. Dict. Austral. Slang 45 Mallee root, a prostitute.
1964 N. Parker Myst. aboard Murrabit 13 Ed was small and gnarled, with unexpected thicks and thins like a mallee root.
1986 B. Hudson & L. Pickering First Austral. Dict. Vulgarities (at cited word) Mallee root, prostitute.
1988 Wheatbelt Mercury (Merredin, Austral.) 14 Sept. 22/1 These [events] include the wheelbarrow race, the hay stacking competition, the wool bale race, mallee root picking competition and the wheat bag throwing relay.
mallee soil n. a sandy red or brownish calcareous soil with calcareous concretions in the subsoil.
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1920 H. S. Taylor Pioneer Irrigationists' Man. lxx. 2 The mallee soils of Berri may be conveniently classed into two classes, deep and shallow.
1948 G. W. Leeper Introd. Soil Sci. 26 Mallee soils and mallee vegetation are not always associated even in Victoria.
1968 Esperance Advertiser (Albany, Austral.) 21 June 13/3 Mallee soils constituted about 40 per cent of the area and in the north-western section..scrub-sand plain soils covered big areas.
1995 Austral. Jrnl. Ecol. 20 266 In the mallee soil fauna were most active, burying the litter under mineral soil before comminution commenced.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2000; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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