mallĕŏlus, i, m. dim. [malleus], a small hammer or mallet.
I Lit., Cels. 8, 3, 29; Vulg. Jud. 4, 21: verba mea sunt quasi malleus conterens petram, id. Jer. 23, 29.—
II Transf.
A A hammershaped slip, a mallet-shoot for planting: malleolus novellus est palmes, innatus prioris anni flagello, cognominatusque a similitudine rei, quod in ea parte, quae deciditur, ex vetere sarmento prominens utrinque, malleoli speciem praebet, Col. 3, 6, 3; cf. Plin. 17, 21, 35, § 156: malleolos pangere, to set in, plant , Col. 3, 3, 12; so, deponere, id. ib.: conserere, id. 3, 14, 2: demergere, id. 3, 18, 2: serere sulco, vel scrobe, Plin. 17, 22, 35, § 169.—
B In milit. lang., a kind of fire-dart , Amm. 23, 4, 14; cf. Paul. ex Fest. p. 135 Müll.: malleoli, manipuli spartei pice contecti, qui incensi aut in muros aut in testudines jaciuntur, Non. 556, 11 sq.: partim malleolos, partim fasces sarmentorum incensos supra vallum, etc., Sisenn. ap. Non. 556, 13: malleolos et faces ad inflammandam urbem comparare, Cic. Cat. 1, 13, 32; cf. id. Mil. 24, 64: faces taedamque et malleolos stupae illitos pice parari jubet, Liv. 42, 64, 3; cf. id. 38, 6, 2. —
C The tongue of a shoe-buckle : malleoli ossei vel aerei, Isid. 19, 34, 10.