Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. as a generic Irish name Mulligan.

2. (orig. US tramp, also mulligan stew) a stew made of whatever meats and vegetables are available [either proper name Mulligan, an otherwise forgotten cook, or Mulligan as a generic for Irish and thus an Irish stew; note army jargon mulligan battery, the cook wagon].

1895		J. London ‘And ’Frisco Kid Came Back’ in High School Aegis X (4 Nov.) 2–4: I got ter rememberin’ de las’ mulligan I had [...] it made me mouth water ter t’ink uv it.
1904		Yukon Midnight Sun (Dawson, Yukon Territory) 10 Jan. 3/4: All the roadhouses served big Christmas dinners and most of them made a mulligan.
1911		N.Y. Times 12 Dec. n.p.: ‘A mulligan,’ he said, ‘is the last meal in camp when you are sixty or more miles from the nearest town. When there is not enough of anything to make even half a meal, why then everything that is left is dumped into the pot and cooked, and the outcome is what we in Nevada call a mulligan.’.
1916		‘A-No. 1’ Snare of the Road 27: What on earth is the use, kid [...] to shin yourself alive for the sake of [text illegible] at fancy scenery when to do so one has to miss so many mulligan stews and other good things.
1918		Cairns Post 12 Mar. 7/4: The British Recruiting Mission have prepared a glossary of trench slang [...] Mulligan.-A stew usually made of the regular ration issue and whatever extras may come to hand. Sometimes cooked in a shrapnel helmet .
1918		L.N. Smith Lingo of No Man’s Land 56: MULLIGAN Irish stew; the meat and vegetable stew served out to the soldiers in the trenches. MULLIGAN BATTERY The cook wagon.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 11: It was a mulligan. Everything was in that stew — meat, potatoes, onions, bread — an appetizing hodge-podge.
1929		in W. Winchell On Broadway 14 Nov. [synd. col.] I’ve developed a passion for Mulligan Stew.
1931		D.M. Garrison ‘Oilfield Idyls’ in Botkin Folk-Say 153: Duke gets the victuals for the mulligan.
1933		‘Goat’ Laven Rough Stuff 33: We were strolling down the jungles, and we met a few of the boys as they were cooking up their mulligan stew.
1947		F. Brown Fabulous Clipjoint (1949) 190: We’re bums now, kid. Ever eat a mulligan?
1948		Daily Ardmoreite 19 Apr. 4: My senses tell me ’tis mulligan stew that gently strokes my nasal membranes with its soul-satisfying aroma [DA].
1951		N. Algren Chicago: City On the Make 71: The last survivors cook up the earth’s final mulligan.
1965		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 74: I even built jungle fires beneath the northern stars / and eaten Mulligan with the dirtiest of bums.
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 107: Some of these migratory men were not loathe to sharing their Mulligan stew and bedrolls with younger runaways.
1984		I. Doig Eng. Creek 96: A brimming mulligan stew.
1986		M. Petit Peacekeepers 207: ‘Does this stuff have a name?’ I asked. ‘It’s called mulligan stew,’ Farley answered. ‘It’s easy to make. Whatever you can find goes into the pot.’.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 31: Man oh man, that mulligan smells good.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 67: Mulligan Old term for stew.
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 222: In the old, skid-row-bum, rail-riding-hobo incarnation, the liquor bottle was an emblem as indispensable as Mulligan stew.
2003		(con. 1968) J. Corbett West Dickens Avenue (2004) 179: Occasionally we [i.e. US Marines] make a meal together [...] We combine our donations and cook a ‘Mulligan stew.’.
2011		D.R. Pollock Devil All the Time 250: [O]thers turned into a gooey mulligan stew seasoned with wild onions and windfall apples.

3. (US) the face.

1904		C. Connors Bowery Life [ebook] Er bloke dat had er lace curtain on his Mulligan—yer know, whiskers on his face.
1905		Pensacola Jrnl (FL) 6 Oct. 6/3: Why, you could see a mulligan like that half a mile.

4. (Aus.) in pl., playing cards.

1922		Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 2 Dec. 18/2: Well, the ‘Hound’ flung down the mulligans to him, and I winked at our fellow travellers.
1939		Williamstown Chron. (Vic.) 1 July 3/4: The ‘head’ pulled out a pack of ‘Mulligan’s’ (playing cards) and dealt out two poker hands.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.

5. (US) a high-powered rifle.

1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 110: Captain John and two guards leveled their Mulligans at me.
1952		C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 323: Mulligan, A high-powered rifle.

6. (US black) a tramp [backform. f. mulligan stew, the consumers of which were mainly vagrants].

1968

N. Heard Howard Street 55: He became occupied with escaping the sharp eyes of [...] the other mulligans of the street.