maul
part of speech
verb (maul, mauls, mauled, mauling); noun (a maul, mauls)
meaning for a pupil
1) To attack and hurt badly with claws and teeth, as a bear or big cat might. tree →
2) To handle something or someone roughly: the toddler mauled the cake. tree →
3) (informal) To beat a team or person very heavily, or to criticise strongly. tree →
4) (noun, rugby) A group of players pushing together around the player holding the ball. tree →
5) (noun) A heavy hammer for splitting wood. tree →
sense in the lessons
In the Tanakh and Jewish tradition: Proverbs compares a false witness to a maul, a sword and a sharp arrow. In Jeremiah God calls His people His maul to smash kingdoms. Interpretation: Tradition teaches that false witness does great harm, as much as a weapon. Jeremiah's image shows God using a nation as a tool. In the primary lessons: In news and safety lessons, «mauled by a dog/bear» warns of animal attacks. In sports reports a team that loses badly is «mauled». In rugby, a maul is a set play. Phrases: mauled by, mauled to death (news), rolling maul.
examples
- As a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow, so is a man that beareth false witness against his neighbour. (Writings PRO.25.18, JPS 1917) tree →
- Thou art My maul and weapons of war, and with thee will I shatter the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms; (Prophets JER.51.20, JPS 1917) tree →
- A maul is come up before thy face; guard the defences, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily! — (Prophets NAM.2.2, JPS 1917) tree →
- The hiker was mauled by a bear but survived. tree →
- Never tease a dog; it might maul you. tree →
- Stop mauling the bread with your dirty hands! tree →
- Our team got mauled ten-nil. tree →
- The critics mauled the new film. tree →
- The rugby players formed a maul. tree →
- Dad split the logs with a maul. tree →
- The cat mauled my toy mouse. tree →
note
Regular verb: mauled. Do not confuse with «mall» (shopping centre), which sounds the same in many accents (homophone in much of the USA). Safety: stay calm and move away slowly from an angry animal; tell an adult.
In the corpora
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «maul» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.