mule driver
- noun
:
muletero
- "The moustache, though of foreign origin, became naturalized among us during the Mexican War, and since then almost everyone who trod the territory of the Montezumas, if it were only in the capacity of a mule-driver, delights to sport.
Examples
-
Music falls under medicine, chanted by blacksmiths and mule drivers to lend a false sense of coherence to a fate.
Fiction book (1993) -
I could use a good mule driver… …maybe two or three.
-
If the mule drivers returning from the coastal regions have not reached their homes before Thursday, he forbids them to proceed.
Academic text (1990) -
Yesterday, an ariero, a Mexican mule driver, came into Stringtown with supplies.
Fiction book (1998) -
It is highly unlikely that Milton Humason, a young man whose formal education stopped with the 8th grade and who worked both as a mule driver and janitor at the Mount Wilson Observatory,
Academic text (2005) -
Yesterday, a skilled mule driver transported goods through the mountain trail.
-
The mule driver guided the team of mules carefully as they carried supplies to the farm.
-
In the early morning, the mule driver prepared his team for a long day of hauling firewood.
Synonyms
53
5.8
A person who guides animals that pull a carriage or wagon
2
7.9
A person who drives a team of horses to pull a wagon
1
9.9
A person who drives and cares for mules as a job
1
9.9
A person who drives animals like mules to pull carts
A person who drives and cares for a group of mules
A person who drives animals like horses to pull a wagon or plough
How Skilled
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a person who drives or controls mules' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'mule' (the animal) with 'driver' (a person who guides animals or vehicles). This noun+noun compounding pattern is a regular, cross-linguistically common way to form occupational nouns, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The noun mule driver comes from the simple picture of a person leading a mule and guiding it to carry heavy loads. Because the driver was the one who controlled the animals, the phrase means 'a person whose job is to drive or control mules'.