Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a fool, a simpleton; often, without an article, as a generic or constr. with a given name.

1774		J. O’Keeffe Tony Lumpkin in Town (1780) 26: He is mightly like Matt Muggins the exciseman.
1794		in Agreeable Songster [song title] Miss Margery Muggins.
1806		G. Colman Yngr John Bull II i: john: My Christian name, sir, is ---. shuff: Muggins – I recollect.
1815		in City of London Collection [song title] Miss Margery Muggins.
1825		‘Matthew Muggins’ Universal Songster II 148: [song title].
1838		‘Boz’ Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi 161: Sadler’s Wells opened at Easter, April 3, 1809 [...] Grimaldi played Clown, with the Song of ‘Looney’s Lamentation for Miss Margery Muggins’.
1841		‘Going Out A-Shooting’ Dublin Comic Songster 234: Now Muggins sits at home and crams.
1846–48		Thackeray Book of Snobs (1889) 30: His name was Muggins then.
1855		Thackeray Newcomes II 117: He is in the Muggins line too [...] O me, what drivelling wretches we are!
1858		Golden Era (S.F.) 28 Jan. 2: It is quite as evident that you are a veritable ‘muggins’.
1861		Hills & Plains 2 63: That d—d Muggins — the manager of the Mehurbanne Bank, his name — writes cheeky letters.
1864		‘Mark Twain’ Californian 1 Oct. n.p.: If you make a mistake of any kind [...] you are pronounced a muggins.
1873		J. Greenwood In Strange Company 152: Master Muggins is but a type of hundreds and thousands who crowd the Ditch on the Sabbath.
1876		B. Harte Gabriel Conroy III 27: He don’t spell well—and he won’t let me teach him—the old Muggins!
1883		‘’Arry on His Critics and Champions’ Punch 14 Apr. 180/1: Mister hoscar’s no muggins, you bet.
1884		Sporting Times 9 Feb. 1/1: There is no more unmitigated muggins than a man who marries a girl with a hare lip and a squint under the idea that those facial treasures will ensure her fidelity.
1895		‘’Arry on Harry’ Punch 24 Aug. 90/1: The pubic ain’t all of ’em mugginses.
1896		F. Hutcheson Barkeep Stories 11: Muggins was a bosom pal of the barkeep’s. He weighs about 200 pounds and his friends say he ‘kin lick most anybody’.
1902		T.W. Connor [perf. Alf Gibson] ‘All of a Sudden He Stopped’ 🎵 Muggins went out on a motor car once / At motor-car work he was only a dunce.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 145: Muggins, the valet, was called, and dispatched for a van.
c.1910		Harry Duff ‘Billy Muggins’ 🎵 Billy Muggins – commonly known as juggins, / Silly, Billy – that’ s what my friends call me, I’m Muggins – the Juggins, / And Muggins I’ ll always be.
1915		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘The Making of Fools’ Sporting Times 13 Feb. 1/2: Young Muggins, the star of his set.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 168: Oh, you little muggins, that’s so good of you.
1935		S. Horler London’s Und. 77: She had taken me for something of a muggins.
1943		M. Harrison Reported Safe Arrival 92: I’d er been Joe Muggins ter say nung, wouldn’ I?
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 99: We’re all Charlie Muggins. Joe Soaps. [Ibid.] 117: You lop sided muggins, you.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 130: Fools of one kind or another [...] Billy Muggins.
1950		C. Harris Three-Ha’Pence to the Angel 15: Foreign girls. ’S all they think about, getting ’old of one of our boys, some Joe Muggins, and making a monkey out of ’im.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 200: A fathead, a mutt, a muggins.
1960		G.W. Target Teachers (1962) 78: What do you think I am? muggins?
1966		J. Holledge Great Aust. Gamble 13: ‘Wake up to yourself, muggins. You’ve got no more brains than a punter’.
1972		A. Chipper Aussie Swearers Guide 62: There are many words for fool [...] but only one with a name: Billy Muggins, the legendary chump.
1976		(con. 1930s) J. Wolveridge Ain’t it Grand 51: The owner would say, ‘try the other eye’ and the muggins would.
1997		C. McPherson The Weir 16: And there’s you and me, and the Jimmy fella, the muggins’s, the single fellas.
2000		J. Hawes Dead Long Enough 257: Congratulations, young fuck-up muggins, your life has been a pile of shite.

2. a kind of card-game.

1896

Ade Artie (1963) 9: You did n’t think this was a game o’ muggins, like you boys play up at your little old cycle club?

3. oneself, a rueful self-description; the implication is one of being a fool to take on a given task; often in phr. muggins here; ; often constr. with a given name.

1950		C. Harris Three-Ha’Pence to the Angel 20: Mons, 1914. Amiens to Zeebrugge. Joe Muggins saw it all.
1958		M. Allingham Hide My Eyes (1960) 93: ‘I’m Charlie Muggins in person,’ he remarked.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 91: Muggins that’s me.
1965		E. Bond Saved Scene vi: Lucky yer got someone t’ look after yer. Muggins ’ere.
1968		G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 103: I’ve got to clean up after these ratbags. Muggins is my middle name.
1977		(con. 1961) J. Rosenthal Spend, Spend, Spend Scene 29: Muggins here had to provide the beer and fags.
1982		P. Theroux London Embassy 153: Muggins put his foot in it.
1997		(con. 1950s) J. Byrne Slab Boys [film script] 117: Muggins here even asked for a second chance for you. Me ... for you!
1999		Indep. Rev. 26 July 2: If it happens to be old muggins here, then so be it.
2004		P. Howard PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 36: Muggins here has to actually sit the [driving] test.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 200: It’s likesay the no-hopers like muggins here whae ye think should jist cash in the chips.
2016		Guardian 21 Oct. 🌐 If anything, it’s us that’s going to be taken advantage of. Old muggins here is going to put out for another little chancer.