mallet

[mal-it] /ˈmæl ɪt/

noun

a hammerlike tool with a head commonly of wood but occasionally of rawhide, plastic, etc., used for driving any tool with a wooden handle, as a chisel, or for striking a surface.

the wooden implement used to strike the balls in croquet.

Polo. the long-handled stick, or club, used to drive the ball.

Origin

1375-1425; late Middle English maillet < Middle French, equivalent to mail maul + -et -et

Examples from the web for mallet

Place stakes into the stake rings at the corners of your tent floor and hammer them into the ground with a mallet.
Drip glue inside each dowel hole and pound dowels into place with a mallet.
Invert the mold and tap it with a mallet to free the pot.
Using a nutcracker or wood mallet, crack the shell of each leg and claw section.
After dipping them in pigment, he or she taps them into the skin with a mallet.
Crack claw shells with mallet, then remove all meat, scraping as close to shell as possible to obtain the color desired.
Where shell is thick, it must be broken with a mallet or hammer.
He found an old croquet mallet when he was five, and pounded it on a concrete walk to secure the head.
They needed a scalpel, they felt, and they were given a mallet.
And that idea is: me chasing you with a big wooden mallet.

British Dictionary definitions for mallet

mallet

/ˈmælɪt/

noun

a tool resembling a hammer but having a large head of wood, copper, lead, leather, etc, used for driving chisels, beating sheet metal, etc

a long stick with a head like a hammer used to strike the ball in croquet or polo

(mainly US) a very large powerful steam locomotive with a conventional boiler but with two separate articulated engine units

Word Origin

C15: from Old French maillet wooden hammer, diminutive of mailmaul (n)

Word Origin and History for mallet

late 14c., from Old French maillet "mallet, small wooden hammer, door-knocker," diminutive of mail, from Latin malleus "a hammer," from PIE *mal-ni-, from root *mele-, *mel- "to crush, grind," with derivatives referring to ground material and tools for grinding (cf. Hittite mallanzi "they grind;" Armenian malem "I crush, bruise;" Greek malakos "soft," mylos "millstone;" Latin molere "to grind," mola "millstone, mill," milium "millet;" Old English melu "meal, flour;" Albanian miel "meal, flour;" Old Church Slavonic meljo, Lithuanian malu "to grind;" Old Church Slavonic mlatu, Russian molotu "hammer").