Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. contemptible.

1652		Jonson, Fletcher & Middleton Widdow III i: That set me back two mangy hours at least.
1751		W. Kenrick Falstaff’s Wedding (1766) II ix: Did the mangy villains so play upon thy sack-but? so maul this poor round-belly? a parcel of sapless twigs!
1850		S. Judd Richard Edney and the Governor’s Family 218: Who are they but mangy ship-jacks, half-baked upper crusts?
1868		Rockhampton Bull. (Qld) 1 Oct. 3/2: It was but a simple and primitive socioety [...] when men caled each other Addlehead, Baldhead, Barebones, Bitch [...] Chisels, Dolt [...] Fogey [...] Gander [...] Maggot, Mangy, Muff, Muzzy.
1887		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Oct. 12/1: It is earnestly desired that the new man when he invites his fellow citizens to the festive ‘hop,’ won’t request a favoured forty to ‘scorf’ the best vittles in a private room. To keep the best jelly for the cream is blank mange-y.
1899		C.J.C. Hyne Adventures of Captain Kettle 298: ‘Out, you blitherer,’ he shouted, ‘and save your mangy life.’.
1907		S.E. White Arizona Nights II 222: Now, you mangy son of a gun.
1914		‘Ian Hay’ Lighter Side of School Life 202: How is your mangy school? Wait till our XV plays you on the 18th!
1922		Joyce Ulysses 702: The old mangy parcel he sent at Xmas a cottage cake and a bottle of hogwash he tried to palm off as claret.
1929		C. McKay Banjo 39: There was a little mangy-faced white there.
1936		‘George Orwell’ Keep The Aspidistra Flying (1962) 17: Mangy little snob.
1943		W. Guthrie Bound for Glory (1969) 354: You mangy little honky-tonk guitar-playin’ sot.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 204: You double-crossing mangy bubonic rat!
1960		N. Hilliard Maori Girl 225: What a mangy-looking bunch! [...] My God, you must get around with some pretty low characters!
1979		H. Leonard A Life (1981) Act II: The row there was over a mangy cup of coffee in her hand the one day in the week.
1987		(con. 1920s) L. Redmond Emerald Square 246: That’s for you, yeh mangy fucker.
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 114: A mangy black crackhead excuse for a pimp at her side.
2004		Guardian 10 July 3: Paul Keating [...] called Mr Howard a ‘mangy maggot’.

2. (Irish) mean, grasping, avaricious.

1914		E. Pugh Cockney At Home 191: The show’s all over, far as I’m concerned. I wouldn’t perform to this mangy crowd now.
1954–56		B. Behan ‘The Same Again, Please’ in After the Wake (1981) 109: People looking out the windows at the footballers [...] screaming advice and abuse to young Coughlin not to be so mangy with the ball.
1979		J. Morrow Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 5: That’s what’s known as a financial squeeze. Mangy brute!
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.