Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) a beating, a fight.

1842		Bell’s Penny Dispatch 17 Apr. 4/2: ‘Don't say a word [...] if you wish to escape without a mugging’.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 75: I knows that ’ere whitehouse warment [...] would chaff — and you knows I’m soon shirty, and then we should have a mugging match.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.

(b) the act of street robbery and assault.

1952		C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 323: Mugging, A robbery in which the victim is assaulted and beaten.
1953		W. Brown Monkey On My Back (1954) 17: Get your fat -- the hell out of here before you get rolled. There’s a dozen or more muggings around here every night.
1961		Mad mag. Sept. 28: See muggings in Hyde Park and [...] a hatchet murder in Blackpool.
1971		B. Malamud Tenants (1972) 58: Bugsy is shot thirty-eight times in Catshit Alley by two white pigs who had cornered him there after a mugging.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 46: Muggings in the schoolyard? Five pupils to a book? Drugs sold openly in the classroom?
1999		N. Cohn Yes We have No 221: Mugging and scamming, taking-and-driving-away.
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 4: It weren’t real muggings to be fair — you didn’t have to hurt them or nothing — just scream at them, shake them up a bit.
2010		Big Issue (SA) 5-26 Feb. 11/1: Tourists will be issued with a Danger Zone Zone Map [...] [it] will highlight hijacking hotspots designated as mugging zones.

(a) making faces.

1899		A. Binstead Gal’s Gossip 148: The sort of piece to suit the young songstress who [...] could do a bit of ‘mugging’.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 809: mugging – Making faces; to give silent warnings behind another’s back; or to warn.
1965		G. Melly Owning Up (1974) 184: The ‘show-biz’ insincerity of some of Louis’ mugging.
1970		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 35: Fat buckskinned Leslie West [...] reacted to Pappalardi’s piddle with broad, joyously agonized mugging, grimacing and grinning and nodding.
1999		Guardian G2 30 Nov. 19: Rolling his eyes and mugging with fear in silence at the end of the scene.

(b) (US police) taking photographs of people, usu. for identification purposes.

1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 389: In some cities suspicious characters are arrested on general principles and immediately photographed by the police authorities. Such towns are called ‘muggin’ joints,’ and the police authorities ‘muggin’ fiends.’.
1930		A. Carey Memoirs of a Murder Man 18: There were some mighty struggles to prevent the operation of ‘mugging,’ as the rogues’ gallery process is termed.