Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. in UK Und. senses.

2. (also mungrel) a general term of abuse, e.g. you bloody mongrel [despite the synon. of mongrel and half-breed, there appears to be no racial implication].

c.1580		Polwart Invectiues Capitane Allexander Montgomeree and Pollvart in Parkinson Poems (2000) IX line 46: Gleyit gangrell, auld mangrell, to thy hangrell vith pyne.
1610		Beaumont & Fletcher Scornful Lady II iii: Steward, you are an ass, a measled mongrel.
a.1625		Beaumont & Fletcher Love’s Cure II i: Thou Mungril [...] are not you he that was whipt out of Toledo for Perjury?
1681		S. Colvil Whiggs Supplication Pt II 19: Your cursed Antichristian Rable, Ye Mungrels of the Whore of Babel.
1708		W. Taverner Maid the Mistress V i: Hark ye, Mungrels, what do you grin at?
1730		J. Miller Humours of Oxford II i: Why, thou Mungrel, thou thing of the doubtful Gender, how can’st thou have the consummate Impudence, to open thy Mouth.
1764		Foote Mayor of Garrat in Works (1799) I 171: Is that your manners, you mongrel?
1797		‘T.B. Junr.’ Pettyfogger Dramatized I i: He is a fellow I don’t much care about; he is an impudent mongrel.
1827		T. Morton School For Grown Children IV i: Silence, mongrel!
1830		Mr Mathews’ Comic Annual 14: After threatening to lay hold of the Black mongrel by the gills, and pull him about like a salmon.
1881		Savile ‘The Snobiad and Gown Row in Cambridge’ in Whibley In Cap and Gown (1889) 145: Oh, curse the mongrel, he’s not worth a groat!
1891		Gloucester Citizen 16 May 4/2: She accused him of calling her son Israel a ‘mongrel’ and then struck him in the mouth with a dish cloth.
1903		J. Furphy Such is Life 10: Go an’ bark up a tree, you mongrel!
1912		Truth (Wellington) 26 Oct. 7/1: Campbell, you are a dirty mongrel.
1921		(con. WWI) E. Lynch Somme Mud 37: Suppose you chaps think I’m a bloomin’ mongrel for doing that?
1922		Joyce Ulysses 443: Give him ginger. Thrash the mongrel within an inch of his life.
1924		Lawrence & Skinner Boy in Bush 244: ‘Wot cheer, mate!’ said one, a ruffianly mongrel.
1930		K.S. Prichard Haxby’s Circus 110: There had never been a Haxby like this, he said, such a wailing, puking, miserable little mongrel.
1941		K. Tenant ‘A Bargain’ in Mann Coast to Coast 41: Why, you dirty, rotten, bludging, little mongrel!
1954		J.E. Macdonnell Jim Brady 82: ‘You dirty rotten mongrels!’ Jim mouthed.
1965		W. Dick Bunch of Ratbags 239: You’re worse than bloody dagoes, yuh low mongrels.
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 149: From now on keep that useless mongrel outta my way.
1981		G. Johnston Fish Factory 25: Finish off a man’s grog and then destroy his boat! [...] Mongrel!
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 13: Other prominent representatives of the animal kingdom in this category of insult include: [...] various types of dog, e.g., bitch, cur, mongrel.
1993		Smith & Noble Neddy (1998) 189: One day he called into a brothel for an empty and, by coincidence, his wife was working there. Yet he still did nothing about it. Weak mongrel.
2003		www.thepantsman.com 🌐 The old men were possibly muttering amongst themselves ‘That filthy fucking mongrel – who let him back in?’.
2015		N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] I had no qualms wrestling a lion cub [...] only for the mongrel to bite me on the bicep and draw blood.
2023		A. Nette Orphan Road 153: Christ on a crutch, but there’s one mongrel I can see in this room, thought Hardigan.

3. (N.Z. prison, also Mongreller) a member of the briker and prison gang the Mongrel Mob.

1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 145: [T]hey chose the Mongrel Mob. Look at Shane, he could have everything but he gave it all up to be a grotty Mongrel.
1991		B. Payne Staunch 145: ‘[T]he Mongrels used to have rallies in their huts, singing Mongrel Mob ditties, stomping the floor, barking like bulldogs, and yelling out, ‘Black Power shit!’.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 118/2: Mongrel n. 1 (also Mongreller) a member of the Mongrel Mob.