mulligan
/ˈmʌlɪɡən/
mulligan noun: an unpenalized chance to re-take a stroke that went awry. Also the ellipsis of mulligan stew.
Noun
mulligan (countable and uncountable, plural mulligans)
- An unpenalized chance to re-take a stroke that went awry.
- If you lose your drive in the water, take a mulligan and try again.
- An opportunity (sometimes penalized) for a player to reshuffle their cards and draw a new initial hand at the beginning of a game.
- Pokemon has a mulligan rule: if you have no Pokemon in your opening hand, you show it to your opponent and redraw. You may also take a mulligan, I believe, if your opening hand has no basic power cards.2009 February 17, LSJ, “Re: Why doesn't VTES have a mulligan rule?”, in rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad (Usenet), message-ID <soDml.10826$hc1.10451@flpi150.ffdc.sbc.com>
- April 1997 introduced the modern 'Paris mulligan' rule; previously a mulligan required either all land or no land in the hand and could be taken only once, now the mulligan can be taken as many times as desired with any hand, but reduces starting hand size by one each time the mulligan is taken.2009 June 27, Zoe Stephenson, “Magic: The Gathering Rules FAQ, v4.03 (part 2)”, in rec.games.trading-cards.magic.rules (Usenet), message-ID <games/magic-t-g/rules/part2_1246075912@rtfm.mit.edu>
- A second chance.
- Don't do poorly in your first interview; you won't get a mulligan.
- It was a low moment when he lost to a smooth-talking Southern smart-ass like Bill Clinton—good thing he got a mulligan, sort of, when Georgie ran.2006, Shelley Lewis, Naked Republicans, Villard, →ISBN, page 172
Proper noun capitalized: Mulligan
Mulligan (plural Mulligans)
- A surname from Irish.
Also used as
mulligan is also the ellipsis of mulligan stew.
mulligan meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali
mulligan in Hindi
- मुल्लिगन, मुलिगन, मुल्लीगन
mulligan in Tamil
- முல்லிகன், முல்லீகன்
mulligan in Marathi
- मुल्लिगन, मुल्लीगन, मुलिगन
mulligan in Bengali
- মুল্লিগান, মুলিগান
More languagesFewer languages
- mulligan in Telugu
- ముల్లిగన్, ముల్లిగాన్
- mulligan in Malayalam
- മുല്ലിഗൻ, മുള്ളിഗൻ
- mulligan in Kannada
- ಮುಲ್ಲಿಗನ್, ಮುಲ್ಲಿಗಾನ್
- mulligan in Punjabi
- ਮੁੱਲੀਗਨ, ਮੁੱਲਿਗਨ, ਮੁਲੀਗਨ
- mulligan in Gujarati
- મુલ્લિગન, મુલ્લીગન, મુલિગન
- mulligan in Odia
- ମୁଲ୍ଲିଗାନ, ମୁଲ୍ଲିଗାନ୍, ମୁଲ୍ଲିଗନ୍
- mulligan in Nepali
- मुल्लिगन, मुल्लिगान, मुल्लीगन
Examples of mulligan in a sentence
- While I too believe in investing in alternative energy resources, you don't get a mulligan when a nuclear weapon or a dirty bomb goes off.2007, Steve Alten, The Shell Game, →ISBN, page 279:
- I wasn't sure, but I had a hunch all I needed was a mulligan.2008, Ross Dale, Embedded, Sourcebooks, →ISBN, page 202:
- OK, we don’t give politicians who lost an election the opportunity for a mulligan, even when they falsely claim that the election was stolen.2023 January 17, Paul Krugman, “Will It Be Morning in Joe Biden’s America?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 23...
Forms of mulligan
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | mulligans |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Mulligans |
| alternative form | Mullican |
Origin of mulligan
Attested since the 1930s in the sense “chance to re-take a golf stroke”; probably from the name Mulligan, after a golfer who replayed a stroke. See Wikipedia for more information.
Reduced Anglicized form of Irish Ó Maolagáin, from maolagán (“person with cropped hair”), from maol (“bald”).
Phrases with mulligan
Questions about mulligan
- What does mulligan mean?
- Mulligan means an unpenalized chance to re-take a stroke that went awry.
- What is mulligan in Hindi?
- Mulligan in Hindi is मुल्लिगन, मुलिगन, मुल्लीगन. See Mulligan meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use mulligan in a sentence?
- While I too believe in investing in alternative energy resources, you don't get a mulligan when a nuclear weapon or a dirty bomb goes off.
- What part of speech is mulligan?
- Mulligan can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce mulligan?
- Mulligan is pronounced /ˈmʌlɪɡən/.
- What is the plural of mulligan?
- The plural of mulligan is mulligans.
Words near mulligan in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mulligan (page history and authors); Mulligan (page history and authors); mulligan (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mulligan (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mulligan (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mulligan (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mulligan (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mulligan (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mulligan (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mulligan (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mulligan (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mulligan (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); mulligan (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “mulligan.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mulligan. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.