mugging n.1
1. in senses of violence.
(a) a beating, a fight.
![]() | Bell’s Penny Dispatch 17 Apr. 4/2: ‘Don't say a word [...] if you wish to escape without a mugging’. | |
![]() | 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. | |
, | ![]() | Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. |
, , | ![]() | Sl. Dict. |
(b) the act of street robbery and assault.
![]() | Men of the Und. 323: Mugging, A robbery in which the victim is assaulted and beaten. | |
![]() | 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. | |
![]() | Mad mag. Sept. 28: See muggings in Hyde Park and [...] a hatchet murder in Blackpool. | |
![]() | Tenants (1972) 58: Bugsy is shot thirty-eight times in Catshit Alley by two white pigs who had cornered him there after a mugging. | |
![]() | Fixx 46: Muggings in the schoolyard? Five pupils to a book? Drugs sold openly in the classroom? | |
![]() | Yes We have No 221: Mugging and scamming, taking-and-driving-away. | |
![]() | 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. | |
![]() | 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. |
2. with ref. to mug n.1 (1b)
(a) making faces.
![]() | Gal’s Gossip 148: The sort of piece to suit the young songstress who [...] could do a bit of ‘mugging’. | |
![]() | World’s Toughest Prison 809: mugging – Making faces; to give silent warnings behind another’s back; or to warn. | |
![]() | Owning Up (1974) 184: The ‘show-biz’ insincerity of some of Louis’ mugging. | |
![]() | Psychotic Reactions (1988) 35: Fat buckskinned Leslie West [...] reacted to Pappalardi’s piddle with broad, joyously agonized mugging, grimacing and grinning and nodding. | in|
![]() | 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.
![]() | 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.’. | |
![]() | Memoirs of a Murder Man 18: There were some mighty struggles to prevent the operation of ‘mugging,’ as the rogues’ gallery process is termed. |
3. (Aus./US, also muggings, mugging up) kissing, love-making; also attrib.
![]() | Aus. Sl. Dict. 51: Mugging, kissing. | |
![]() | Appleton Post-Crescent (WI) 28 Apr. 17/4: barney muggin – Business of making love. | |
![]() | Plastic Age 271: I hate mugging and petting and that sort of thing. I don’t want beauty debased. | |
![]() | Working Bullocks 242: Her mother did not encourage ‘mugging,’ as she called it. | |
![]() | Short Stories (1937) 202: Some broad [...] threw a party. And let me tell you, she was swell muggings, too. | ‘Wedding Bells Will Ring’ in|
![]() | (con. 1830s–60s) All That Swagger 405: This boy-and-girl mugging business soon palls on me. | |
![]() | ‘Double Feature’ in N.Y. Age 5 June 7/1: Light muggin’ with that McDonough street doctor’s daughter. | |
![]() | Poor Man’s Orange 91: Kissing and mugging and hugging, don’t they ever think of anything else? | |
![]() | (con. 1936–46) Winged Seeds (1984) 59: There’s nothing doing when there’s a chance for a bit of love-making. ‘Don’t like being mauled’ and ‘Mugging is barred’. | |
![]() | Far from the Customary Skies 61: I figure the last night ashore oughta be something worth remembering [...] A real blowout, not a mugging party with a chocolate drop. | |
![]() | Gun in My Hand 168: What’s the idea of mugging up in public like that? Disgusting I call it. |