mug

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: mŭg, IPA^(key): /mʌɡ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌɡ

Etymology 1

Early 16th century (originally Scots and northern English, denoting "earthenware, pot, jug"), of unknown origin, perhaps from North Germanic (compare Swedish mugg (“mug, jug”), Norwegian mugge (“pitcher, open can for warm drinks”), Danish mugge), or Low German mokke, mukke (“mug”), German Low German Muck (“drinking cup”), Dutch mok (“mug”), also of unknown origin. Perhaps related to Old English muga (“stack”) and Old Norse múgr (“mass, heap (of corn)”). Compare also Middle English mug, mog (“a measure of salt”).

"Face" sense possibly from grotesque faces on certain drinking vessels. "Assault" sense of verb possibly from hitting someone in the face.

Noun

mug (plural mugs)

1. A large cup for beverages, usually having a handle and used without a saucer.

   

3. (slang, often derogatory) The face.

   Synonyms: mush, dial, phiz

   What an ugly mug.

   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island:

     When did ever a gentleman o’ fortune show his stern to that much dollars for a boosy old seaman with a blue mug — and him dead too?

   • 2006, Noire , Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 152:

     Isis rode my mug like she was on a ten-inch dick, and as soon as she nutted I tossed her ass off a me and flipped her on her back, then fucked the shit outta her cause it was payback time.

4. (slang, derogatory) A gullible or easily-cheated person.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:dupe

   He's a gullible mug – he believed her again.

5. (UK, Australia, derogatory, slang) A stupid or contemptible person.
6. (slang) A criminal.
7. (slang) A mug shot.
   • 1940, United States. Congress Senate, Hearings (volume 13, page 27252)

     Perhaps if I told you that there were forty arrests made in one day here, you will realize that with this small equipment available in the Sheriff's Office, it is very difficult to get mugs. These people are being mugged as they are being arrested but with an entirely inadequate force at work prints have not as yet been made.

Derived terms

Descendants

• → French: mug, → French: meugue
• → Finnish: muki
• → Maltese: magg
• → Swedish: mugg
• → Welsh: mẁg, mỳg

Translations

See also

Verb

mug (third-person singular simple present mugs, present participle mugging, simple past and past participle mugged)

1. (transitive, obsolete, UK) To strike in the face.
   • 1821, The Fancy, i. p.261:

     Madgbury showed game, drove Abbot in a corner, but got well Mugg'd.

   • 1857, "The Leary Man", in Anglicus Ducange, The Vulgar Tongue

     And if you come to fibbery, You must Mug one or two,

   • 1866 May 5, London Miscellany, page 102:

     "Suppose they had Mugged you?" / "Done what to me?" / "Mugged you. Slogged you, you know."

2. (transitive) To assault for the purpose of robbery.
3. (intransitive) To exaggerate a facial expression for communicative emphasis; to make a face, to pose, as for photographs or in a performance, in an exaggerated or affected manner.

   The children weren't interested in sitting still for a serious photo; they mugged for the camera.

   • 1989 May 6, Mara Math, “Boston's Women in Theatre Extravaganza”, in Gay Community News, page 6:

     Her dress is too obviously "costume," and Ford-Smith mugs too broadly for us to forget, as we should, that Katie is a theatrical invention.

   • 1990 September 17, Larry Rohter, “‘Fresh Prince of Bel Air’ Puts Rap in Mainstream”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     Taping an episode that pairs him with the veteran leading man Richard Roundtree in front of a live audience, Mr. Smith displayed a strong sense of comedic timing, mugged for the camera at will, improvised dialogue with alacrity […]

4. (transitive) To photograph for identification; to take a mug shot of.
   • 1940, United States. Congress Senate, Hearings (volume 13, page 27252)

     Perhaps if I told you that there were forty arrests made in one day here, you will realize that with this small equipment available in the Sheriff's Office, it is very difficult to get mugs. These people are being mugged as they are being arrested but with an entirely inadequate force at work prints have not as yet been made.

   • 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 01:

     The Bat—they called him the Bat. […]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.

5. (UK, Australia, Singapore, slang) To learn or review a subject as much as possible in a short time; cram.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

mug (comparative mugger, superlative muggest)

1. (archaic) Easily fooled, gullible.
   • 1920, Herman Cyril McNeile, chapter 1, in Bulldog Drummond:

     "Great heavens! Is it?" Drummond helped himself to marmalade. "And to think that I once pictured myself skewering Huns with it. Do you think anybody would be mug enough to buy it, James?"

2. (Bermuda, slang) Uninteresting or unpleasant.
   • 2013 April 12, “Exclusive: Meet Derpuntae - Bermuda's first meme”, in The Bermuda Sun‎, archived from the original on 2022-12-12:

     But anyways, I stayed back a second year and my papa was visiting when momma was opening de report card. Papa gave me de muggest moment in my life like.

   • 2020 February 4, @makim_ori, Twitter‎, archived from the original on 7 July 2023:

     So... complaining about Bermuda being boring/mug on a constant does what exactly?

Etymology 2

Informal variant of motherfucker.

Noun

mug (plural mugs)

1. (slang, African-American Vernacular) Motherfucker (usually in similes, e.g. "like a mug" or "as a mug")

References

• “mug”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “mug”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• Jonathon Green (2024) “mug adj.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang
• “mug, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Anagrams

• GUM, Gum, MGU, gum

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch mug, from Middle Dutch mugge.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mœχ/

Noun

mug (plural mugge, diminutive muggie)

1. (chiefly diminutive) mosquito (insect, elongated fly)

Descendants

• → English: muggie

Albanian

Alternative forms

• mugë

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *smuga, cognate to Old English smoca (“smoke”), Old Irish múch (“smoke”), Armenian մուխ (mux).

Noun

mug m (plural mugje, definite mugu, definite plural mugjet)

1. dusk, twilight

Declension

Derived terms

• mugull
• mugullon
• mugët

Related terms

• mjegull
• murg
• muzg

References

Danish

Etymology

From Old Norse mugg, from a Proto-Germanic derivative of Proto-Indo-European *mew-k- (“slimy, slippery”), see also Ancient Greek μύκης (múkēs, “mushroom”).

Noun

mug c or n (uncountable, singular indefinite mug, singular definite muggen or mugget)

1. mold

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch mugge, from Old Dutch *mugga, from Proto-West Germanic *muggju, from Proto-Germanic *mugjō (“midge”).

Compare Low German mügge, German Mücke, West Frisian mich, English midge, Danish myg.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mʏx/

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mug
• Rhymes: -ʏx

Noun

mug f (plural muggen, diminutive mugje n or muggetje n)

1. A mosquito, a gnat, any fly of the suborder Nematocera except sometimes the larger tropical species (which are commonly called muskiet).
2. (figuratively) A bug, an insignificant individual.

   Van een mug een olifant maken

   To make a mountain out of a molehill (lit.: to make an elephant out of a mosquito)

Derived terms

Related terms

• meuzie

Descendants

• Afrikaans: mug
  • → English: muggie

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English mug.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mœɡ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

mug m (plural mugs)

1. a large cup, generally used to serve cold drinks, a mug

Old Irish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *mogus, from Proto-Indo-European *mogʰus (“young person”). Cognate with Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌲𐌿𐍃 (magus, “boy”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /muɣ/

Noun

mug m

1. male slave or servant, serf, bondman
   • c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 7^d10

     Mógi sidi uili do Día; acht do·rigénsat in descipuil dechor etarru et déu diib: is hed on ɔsecha-som hic.

     They are all servants to God; but the disciples had made a distinction between them and (made) gods of them; that is what he corrects here.

Inflection

The nominative plural appears once as mógi, apparently by attraction to the i-stems.

Descendants

• Irish: mogh

Mutation

Further reading

• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “mug, mog”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Sumerian

Romanization

mug

1. Romanization of 𒈮 (mug)

Volapük

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Noun

mug (nominative plural mugs)

1. mouse (rodent of the family Muridae)

Declension

Hypernyms

• nim
• sügaf
• süganim
• tuetaf
• tuetanim

Hyponyms

• himug
• jimug
• mugil
• mugül

Derived terms

See also

• rat
• visul
• yat