Definition of "mule" []

• The sterile hybrid offspring of a male donkey and a female horse, characterized by long ears and a short mane. (noun)
• A sterile hybrid, as between a canary and other birds or between certain plants. (noun)
• Informal A stubborn person. (noun)
• A spinning machine that makes thread or yarn from fibers. Also called spinning mule. (noun)
• A small, usually electric tractor or locomotive used for hauling over short distances. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "He makes them obey not by pleading, which they ignore, and not by hitting them, which merely makes them more stubborn, but by what he calls his mule persuader."
• "; and he answered, “O my lord, the owner of this mule is a comely young man of pleasant manners, withal grave and dignified, and doubtless one of the sons of the merchants.”"
• "A mule is stubborn, and may manifest glimmering adumbrations of cunning; but the husky can be characterized as pertinacious, deceitful, sharp, and, above all, well capable of deductive reasoning."