1. To beat, batter, or tear at a person or animal: "The San Francisco Zoo was closed to visitors Wednesday (December 26, 2007) as investigators tried to determine how a tiger escaped from its enclosue and attacked three visitors, killing one man and mauling another two. Last year, Tatiana, a Siberian tiger, reached through her cage's bars and mauled a keeper by ripping the flesh off the zookeeper's arm just before Christmas of 2006."
2. To handle someone or something too roughly or clumsily.
3. To split wood using a large heavy hammer and a wedge.
4. A large heavy hammer, usually with a wooden head, that is used for driving in piles, stakes, or wedges.
5. A heavy hammer that has one side of the head shaped like a wedge, making it suitable for splitting logs or wood.
6. Etymology: from about 1240, meallen, "strike with a heavy weapon"; from Middle English mealle, "mace, wooden club, heavy hammer"; from Old French mail "mallet"; from Latin malleus, "hammer".