▪ I. muller, n.1
(ˈmʌlə(r))
Forms: 5 molour, -owre, mulloure, 6 mol(l)er, molver, 7, 9 mullar, 8– muller.
[Perh. a. AF. *moloir (cf. OF. moloir adj., serving to pound or grind), f. mol-, moldre (mod.F. moudre to grind.]
A stone with a flat base or grinding surface, which is held in the hand and used, in conjunction with a grinding stone or slab, in grinding painters' colours, apothecaries' powders, etc. Also muller-stone.
| 1404 Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees) 396, j petra cum j molour pro pictoribus. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 342/1 Molowre, gryndynge stone (K. for colourys) mola. 1612 Peacham Graphice 69 The choice of your grinding stone and mullar. I like best the porphyrie, white or greene Marble, with a muller or vpper stone of the same. c 1790 J. Imison Sch. Art II. 67 The student must be provided with..a large stone and muller to levigate the colours. 1873 E. Spon Workshop Receipts Ser. i. 106/1 The muller is a hard and conical-formed stone, the diameter of the base or rubbing surface of which should be about one-sixth of that of the grindstone. |
| Comb. 1856 Royle & Headland Mat. Med. (ed. 3) 687 Tapioca Starch... Grains convex, ovoid, or mullar-shaped. |
b. A similar implement used for polishing.
| 1727–41 Chambers Cycl., Muller, is also an instrument used by the glass-grinders; being a piece of wood, to one end whereof is cemented the glass to be ground. |
† c. Used (? erron.) for the slab upon which ingredients are mullered. Also muller stone. Obs.
| 1559 Morwyng Evonym. 12 Renewing..the destillation, and powering again y⊇ water upon y⊇ dregges grounde vpon a marble moler. 1563 T. Gale Antidot. ii. 78 Grynde them verye fyne vppon a moller stone. |
d. Applied to mechanical contrivances for grinding or crushing.
| 1858 Patents Specif., India Rubber (1875) 133 Disintegrating..india-rubber, and passing it through ‘mullers’ or rollers heated or not. 1889 C. G. W. Lock Pract. Goldmining 691 The muller runs at 72 revolutions a minute. |
▪ II. † ˈmuller, n.2 Sc. Obs.
Also 6 mullar, 7 muler.
[a. F. moulure: see moulure.]
= moulding.
| 1554–5 Burgh Rec. Edinb. (1871) II. 354 Item,..mullars to the nether queir dur. 1563 Shute Archit. 8 The muller or Coronicis, of the antiques. 1635 G. Jamesone in J. Bulloch Life (1885) 92 The pryce [of the picture]..is twentie merkis,..bot iff I furniss ane double gilt muller, then it is twentie poundis. |
Hence † ˈmullered a., furnished with a moulding.
| 1663 in Kirkcudbr. War-Comm. Min. Bk. (1855) 188 Ane large keicking glass mulered with eibonie and caice conforme. |
▪ III. muller, n.5
(ˈmʌlə(r))
[f. mull v.3 + -er1.]
1. A vessel in which wine or other liquor is mulled.
| 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Muller,..a vessel for heating wine over a fire. 1889 A. Watt Electro-Metall. 237 Large brass and copper articles, as mullers, for example, must be literally surrounded by anodes, otherwise they will not receive a uniform coating of nickel. |
2. One who, or that which, mulls (Webster 1864).
▪ IV. muller, v.1
(ˈmʌlə(r))
[f. muller n.1]
trans. To grind with a muller.
| 1853 Ure Dict. Arts II. 127 As long as the phosphorus is being ground or ‘mullered’, copious fumes are evolved. |