mullet

• IPA^(key): /ˈmʌlɪt/, /ˈmʌlət/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌlɪt
• Rhymes: -ʌlət

From Middle English molet, mulett, from Old French mulet (now ‘grey mullet’), from Latin mullus (“red mullet”), from Ancient Greek μύλλος (múllos).

mullet (plural mullets or mullet)

2. A fish of the family Mullidae (order Syngnathiformes).

   Synonyms: red mullet, mullid, goatfish

   2. (sometimes specifically) Those of the genus Mullus within that family.

      Synonym: red mullet

4. (especially US) A fish of the family Mugilidae (order Mugiliformes).

   Synonyms: grey mullet, haarder, springer

6. (US) Any of several species of freshwater fish in the sucker family.
   2. (especially) Those in the genus Moxostoma.

      Synonyms: redhorse, jumprock

Also termed a mullethead, possibly derived from the fish (see Etymology 1) or from mull (meaning to stupefy) though neither is certain.^[1]

mullet (plural mullets)

1. A fool.

1994 US. Popularized and possibly coined by hip hop group the Beastie Boys in their song "Mullet Head".

mullet (plural mullets)

1. A men's hairstyle where the hair is kept short on the top and sides and long at the back.

   Synonym: hockey hair

   Coordinate term: bilevel

   • 1994, Beastie Boys, Mullet Head:

     – Mullet head, don't touch the back
     – Cut the sides, don't touch the back

   • 2008, Danielle Corsetto, Girls With Slingshots 406‎^[2]:

     – Maybe it's a curly fro.
     – Maybe every day is bad hair day!
     – Maybe it's a mullet!

2. (slang) A person who mindlessly follows a fad, a trend, or a leader.

• business in the front, party in the back

From Middle English molet, from Old French molette (“rowel”).

mullet (plural mullets)

1. (heraldry) A star with straight edges and usually with five or six points.
   • 1871, Debrett's illustrated baronetage and knightage (and companionage) of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, page 215:

     Grogan, Creation of 1859, or Moyvore, Westmeath. [...] Arms,—Barry of sex or and sable, on a chief engrailed azure a lion passant of the first. Crest,—A lion's head erased sable, charged with a mullet or.

2. A rowel of a spur.

• estoile

Unadapted borrowing from English mullet.

mullet m (plural mullets)

1. mullet (men’s hairstyle that is long in the back and short in the front)