Mr. Lowell says, “We have heard mulling used for stirring, bustling, sometimes in an underhand way. It is a metaphor probably from mulling wine.”
18[?]. There has been a pretty considerable mullin going on among the doctors ever sen the quack medicine came out.—‘Margaret’ (Bartlett). Here it means consulting.
1857. “And what do you do with them [your troubles]?” “Let ’em mull.”—J. G. Holland, ‘The Bay-Path,’ p. 200. [Let ’em settle themselves.]
1897. The question is, what kind of a boy was he? I’ve been mullin’ [ruminating] over that consid’able.—W. D. Howells, ‘Landlord at Lion’s Head,’ ch. xxxviii.
