Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a picture taken by the police and used for criminal records.

1893		Republican Citizen (Atwood, KS) 26 May n.p.: [advert] Get your ugly mug shot — Rogers. We are ready for work, call and see us. E.N. Rogers, Photographer.
1896		Muncie Eve Press (IN) 14 Feb. 1/5: Officers Ball and Thornburg and representatives of the afternoon papers has their ‘mugs shot’ this morning in front of the police station. The only damage done was to the camera.
1899		Chicago Dly News 1 Mar. n.p.: ‘Hully gee, mister, are you going to put my mug shot in de paper?’.
1907		Say. Spectator (Terre Haute, IN) 21 Dec. 9: [advert for Folding Pocket brownie camera] on christmas morn let all be joy / have your my shot by your girl or boy.
1912		Marion Dly Mirror (OH) 22 Jan. 5/4: Phillips objected strongly to having his ‘mug shot,’ as the police say, and it was after a struggle [...] that the photographer was able to locate the prisoner’s face with the camera.
1950		cited in Wentworth & Flexner DAS (1975) 3491: The police passed around a mug shot of Willie.
1952		H. McCoy Corruption City 60: Cicero showed her a mug picture of Jimmy Kchop.
1965		R.L. Pike Mute Witness (1997) 14: Not quite the same picture as the mug-shots in the police folder.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 15: He was probably going for fingerprinting and a mug photo.
1979		M. Matshoba ‘Pilgrimage to Makana’ Call Me Not A Man 93: Their eyes told me they already knew. Perhaps from a mugshot they had picked up from the pass department.
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time 1292: mug shots: the photographs kept in police or prison files.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 23: [The face] didn’t match the mug shots, not even close.
1998		K. Anderson Night Dogs 149: [H]e knew most of the others. Their mugshots were in the shoebox in the car.
1999		Guardian Guide 14–20 Aug. 21: At the police station you’ll find a series of mug shots.
2000		Hip-Hop Connection Jan.–Feb. 32: Spendin a night in the clink and posing for mug shots.
2009		J. Stahl Pain Killers 47: Riffing through the prisoner files, scoping out a ninety-seven-tear-old’s mug shot.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 324: ‘You know these guys?’ Benton asked as he dropped a pair of mug shot blowups on the table.
2012		A. Bergen ‘Dread Fellow Churls’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] She picked up one of the mug shots from the table.
2020		C. Hiaasen Squeeze Me 109: Angie [...] showed her a mug shot of Keever Bracco.
2023		A. Nette Orphan Road 122: [H]er father’s mugshot, his mop of thick black hair, lopsided grin, and beady eyes.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1953		T. Runyon In For Life 60: Posing before the camera for my ‘mug shot’ picture.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 129: Would Ah Toy be willing to come down to headquarters to look through some mugshot books?
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 42: An old-fashioned mug shot number sign.

3. synon., in non-police work, e.g. a publicity photograph.

1972		E. Grogan Ringolevio 81: Kenny would [...] kiss the mug shots which accompanied their [ie. journalists] bylines.
1977		‘John le Carré’ Honourable Schoolboy 136: ‘Front page mugshot, banner headlines.’.
1987		M. Bail Holden’s Performance (1989) 269: Not only mugshots of Mr Frank McBee, MP, scratching himself like Napoleon at state functions.
1999		Guardian G2 27 July 13: Each one of his paintings is a mugshot of a pliable surface.
2000		Indep. Rev. 22 Mar. 11: She laughs off a 20-year-old mugshot of herself pasted on to the front page.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 206: Who’d have expected to see Pathé’s pointy kisser on anything but a mug shot?

4. attrib. use of sense 3.

2017

Huffington Post 31 Aug. 🌐 There’s a new hot mugshot guy taking the fashion world by storm.