— mauler , n.
/mawl/ , n.
1. a heavy hammer, as for driving stakes or wedges.
2. Archaic. a heavy club or mace.
v.t.
3. to handle or use roughly: The book was badly mauled by its borrowers.
4. to injure by a rough beating, shoving, or the like; bruise: to be mauled by an angry crowd.
5. to split with a maul and wedge, as a wooden rail.
Also, mall .
[ 1200-50; (n.) ME malle mail mallet, hammer malleus hammer; (v.) ME mallen maillier, deriv. of n. ]