mug

English Online Dictionary. What means mug‎? What does mug mean?

Translingual

Symbol

mug

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Musgu.

See also

• Wiktionary's coverage of Musgu terms

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: mŭg, IPA^(key): /mʌɡ/
• 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)

2. A large cup for beverages, usually having a handle and used without a saucer.
4. (slang, often derogatory) The face.

   Synonyms: mush, dial, phiz
5. (slang, derogatory) A gullible or easily-cheated person.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:dupe

6. (UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, derogatory, slang) A stupid or contemptible person.
7. (slang) A criminal.
8. (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, Ireland) To strike in the face.
   • 1857, "The Leary Man", in Anglicus Ducange, The Vulgar Tongue

     And if you come to fibbery, You must Mug one or two,
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.
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.
5. (UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, 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.
2. (Bermuda, slang) Uninteresting or unpleasant.

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.
• “mug adj.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present
• “mug, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: 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).

Pronunciation

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”).

Pronunciation

Noun

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

1. mold

Further reading

• “mug” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “mug” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

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/
• 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

Derived terms

Related terms

• meuzie

Descendants

• Afrikaans: mug
  • → English: muggie

Further reading

• “mug” in Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal – Officiële Spelling, Nederlandse Taalunie. [the official spelling word list for the Dutch language]

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English mug.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mœɡ/

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

Inflection

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

Descendants

• Irish: mogh

Mutation

Further reading

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “mug, mog”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Sumerian

Romanization

mug

1. Romanization of 𒈮 (mug)

Volapük

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [muɡ]

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