Etymology From muller (“to destroy; to beat or thrash; to utterly defeat or outplay”) + -ed (suffix forming past tense and past participle forms of regular verbs). Muller is probably derived from Angloromani mul-, the preterite stem of mer- (“to die”) (compare mullered, mullo (“dead”, adjective); ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to die; to disappear”)) + English -er (suffix forming frequentative verbs).
1
UK, Slang Badly damaged or completely destroyed; ruined, trashed, wrecked.
My car isn’t driveable at the moment: the clutch is totally mullered.
The police couldn't really do what they had to do so a lot of Chelsea fans will remember that day because they got mullered and that is what counted.2006, Cass Pennant, “Jela: West Ham United”, in Top Boys: Meet the Men behind the Mayhem, London: John Blake Publishing, →ISBN, page 401:
2 more examples
I called Laurie, my daughter about it. I said, "You are not going to believe this, but there's a Banksy here." When she saw it she thought she'd won the Lottery. She said "Oh god, you've got to preserve it." It was in a dreadful state when we found it, absolutely mullered. Someone had already rollered over it. We cleaned it right up. We framed it. Put a bit of Perspex over it. Don't look too bad, does it?2012, Will Ellsworth-Jones, quoting Mark Ellis, “All Aboard for the Banksy Tour”, in Banksy: The Man behind the Wall, London: Aurum Press, published 2013, →ISBN, pages 84–85:
I noticed that another phlomis, no more than 3m (10 ft) away from the wall got absolutely mullered while one near the wall did okay, and although it got a bit battered in places, once I'd pruned it, it was fine.2020, Adam Frost, “Where to Grow”, in How I Garden: Easy Ideas & Inspiration for Making Beautiful Gardens Anywhere (Gardeners’ World), London: BBC Books, →ISBN, section “Microclimates”:
Every Friday night we would go out and get completely mullered.
The other side of Rich, which helped balance him out, was that he loved going out and getting absolutely mullered, where he would totally lose the plot – Which I presume was a form of escapism from his carefully planned daily life.2005, Joe Best, “My Fellow Travellers”, in I Wanna Go Again! Memories of Travel, Youth, Love and Camel Dung, Bracknell, Berkshire: Ascendere Publishing, →ISBN, part 1 (Sorting Our Lives Out):
3 more examples
It was a Saturday night. We NEVER had a Saturday night off. So we went to the Hammersmith Palais and we got absolutely mullered. The next night, we all piled off to a pub called the Sussex.2006, Gordon Ramsay, “Getting Started”, in Humble Pie, London: HarperCollinsPublishers, →ISBN, pages 83–84:
On the rare occasion that we decided to stay in, Omar would cook, but it took so bloody long that by the time he finished, we were all mullered.2017, Kelly Osbourne, “Dear London”, in There is No F*cking Secret: Letters from a Badass Bitch, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, →ISBN, page 70:
At Christmas he told us, 'Right, I'll take you to the best bar in Adelaide – Crazy Horse.' […] Crazy Horse had become our regular Tuesday night haunt. […] [W]e couldn't go out on a Saturday and get mullered, so on a Tuesday, ahead of a slightly easier day on Wednesday, off we'd go to Crazy Horse.2020, Rob[ert] Key, “Cry Me a River”, in ‘Oi, Key’: Tales of a Journeyman Cricketer, Barnsley, South Yorkshire; Philadelphia, Pa.: White Owl Books, Pen & Sword Books, →ISBN:
3
Hobbies, Lifestyle, SportsUK, Often, Slang Of a sportsperson, a team, etc.: utterly defeated or outplayed; destroyed, thrashed, trounced.
The papers were saying we were going to get mullered in the scrum. That's when the confidence started to grow. If they believe that, then that's good for us.2010, Tom English, quoting Jim Telfer, “Once More unto the Breach, Dear Friends, Once More”, in The Grudge: Scotland vs. England, 1990, London: Yellow Jersey Press, Random House, →ISBN, page 160:
Looks like we're going to have a majority of around thirty, forty seats. I really can't wait to see [Jeremy] Paxman grilling the Tory top brass to explain their defeat. […] I better phone home and make sure that gets recorded. Mullered, they were, the Tory cunts. Absolutely mullered! Especially in London.2011, Alex Wheatle, “It’s All Red on the Night”, in Brenton Brown, London: Arcadia Books, published 2013, →ISBN, page 260:
1 more example
Then she stuck her arms akimbo and delivered a look a mum would give to a lad who wanted to quit football just because his team got mullered.2019, Laurel Kerr [pseudonym; Erin Laurel O’Brien], chapter 1, in Sweet Wild of Mine (Where the Wild Hearts Are; book 2), Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks Casablanca, →ISBN:
mullered
adj
Etymology
A variant of mouldered, from moulder (“to decay, rot”) + -ed (suffix forming past tense and past participle forms of regular verbs). Moulder is derived from mould (“loose friable soil; rotting earth regarded as the substance of the human body”) + -er (suffix forming frequentative verbs), probably influenced by mould (“furry growth of fungi”); and mould is from Middle English mold, molde (“loose friable soil, dirt, earth; earth as the substance out of which God made man, and to which the human body decays into after death”), from Old English molde (“earth, soil”), from Proto-Germanic *muldō (“dirt, soil; furry growth of fungi, mould”), from Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to crush, grind”).
1
Scotland, UK, Obsolete, Slang Synonym of mouldered (“turned to dust; crumbled, decayed, rotted”).
I have often thought in my melancholy days, these years bygone, that if it might be supposed, that the souls of our worthies were come from heaven, and the dust of their mullered bodies from their graves, and reunite again, […]1728 (date written), P[atrick] W[alker], “Preface”, in Some Remarkable Passages of the Life and Death of Mr. Alexander Peden, Late Minister of the Gospel at New Glenluce in Galloway. […], Pittsburgh, Pa.: […] [F]or Alexander M’Queen, by Robert Ferguson and Co., published 1815, →OCLC, page xxii: