Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(W.I.) thin, scrawny.

1901		Monroe & Northup ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:iii 143: mauger, adj. Sickly, weak in appearance.
1909		‘Tom Redcam’ One Brown Gal 35/1: Look how me poor little body meagre and shivrel wid hard time.
1910		Anderson & Cundall Jamaica Proverbs and Sayings 37: Mauger plantain better dan none at all.
1929		M. Beckwith Jamaica Proverbs (1970) 34: Daag mauger him head big.
1933		(con. 1900s) C. McKay Banana Bottom 303: It’s [...] bettah than runnin’ from pillar to post like a mawgar dawg.
1942		L. Bennett ‘Show Yuh Foot’ in Jam. Dialect Poems 42: You shame fe show yuh mawga foot?
1950		Bennett, Clarke & Wilson Anancy Stories and Dialect Verse 19: You care mauger cow, a you him buck.
1953		W.G. Ogilvie Cactus Village 24: Kiah is pettin’ that mawgah gyal too much.
1966		(con. 1940s) L. Bennett ‘Bear Up’ in Jamaica Labrish 53: Noh mock mawga cow, him a bull muma.
1980		M. Thelwell Harder They Come 208: The little mauger one wid de grayhead is Raccoon de High Priest.
1983		T. White Catch a Fire 115: He looked ‘maaga’ (wretchedly thin).
1983		V. Bloom ‘Mek Ah Ketch Har’ in Touch Mi, Tell Mi 12: Dat mawga gal name Sue.
1989		C. Hyatt When Me Was A Boy 65: Slim an Sam, one was tall and mawga an the other one shorter and fat.
1990		L. Goodison Baby Mother and King of Swords 15: Well my ‘friend’ them was some mawgre dog!
1995		Francis-Jackson Official Dancehall Dict. 33: Mawgah extremely slim, thin: u. bwoy, yuh mawgah, eeh?/boy, you are skinny!
2002		L.K. Johnson ‘Story’ in Mi Revalueshanary Fren 45: Mi get soh resless / dat mi get careless / an goh bare mi mawgah chess.
2005		(con. c.1945) A. Wheatle Island Songs (2006) 51: Welton knew there was no way he could tempt the harsh-mouthed sisters into purchasing one of his cheap ‘maaga’ goats.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 29: I never put on any weight, I was always marga.