mulligan

English

Etymology

This definition is lacking an etymology or has an incomplete etymology. You can help Wiktionary by giving it a proper etymology.

The unit of measure sense is from that quantity's often being the amount a person must drink if taking a do-over in a drinking game.

Noun

mulligan (plural mulligans)

1. Mulligan stew.
   • 1918 September, W. C. Tuttle, "A Rootin' Tooter", in Boys' Life, volume 8, number 9, page 5 [1]:

     "I've got a mulligan on the stove upstairs," grinned Sloan, getting out of his chair.

   • 1956, Nelson Algren, A Walk on the Wild Side, 1998 paperback edition, ISBN 0374525323, pages 90–91 [2]:

     Another afternoon Dove jungled up with four others beside a creek. […] A couple of the boys got a mulligan going. Dove lay naked in the creek smoking a cigarette and smelling the mulligan.

   • p. 1932, a. 1998, Erling Strom, as quoted in, 1998, Louis W. Dawson, Wild Snow, ISBN 0930410815, page 105 [3]:

     When we did, nobody was there, but we found two empty sleeping bags and some mulligan in a pot on a stove.

2. (golf) 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.

3. A second chance.

   Don't do poorly in your first interview; you won't get a mulligan.

   • 2006, Shelley Lewis, Naked Republicans, Villard, ISBN 0812976916, page 172 [4]:

     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.

   • 2007, Steve Alten, The Shell Game, ISBN 9781599550947, page 279 [5]:

     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.

   • 2008, Ross Dale, Embedded, Sourcebooks, ISBN 9781402219252, page 202 [6]:

     I wasn't sure, but I had a hunch all I needed was a mulligan. If I could only reconnect with her somehow and begin all over again.