transmogrify, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

transmogrify v.

also transmigrify, transmography

[subseq. SE, OED suggests orig. version was transmigrafy and links it to illiterate corruption of SE transmigure or transmigrate, to move from one place to another]

to metamorphose, to alter.

1656		‘Basilius Musophilus’ Don Zara Del Fogoy vi (1719) 33: So that he remained for a time as one trans-elemented. [Note] Meaning transmografide, or metarmorphosed into a Mandrake [OED].
1688		T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia III i: I know I am Transmography’d: But I am your very Brother, Ned.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Transmogrify to alter, or new vamp.
1728		Fielding Love in Several Masques V iv: I begin to think myself [...] that some wicked Enchanters have transmographied my Dulcinea.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1751–4		J. Jortin Ecclesiastical Hist. i 254: Augustine seems to have had a small doubt whether Apuleius was really transmogrified into an ass [F&H].
1776		Foote A Trip to Calais in Works (1799) II 329: You’ll find the names of things plaguily transmogrified all along this coast.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Transmography, or Transmigrify, to patch up vamp, or alter.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1833		M. Scott Tom Cringle’s Log (1862) 73: Jonathan [...] let drive his whole broadside: and fearfully did it transmogrify us.
1844		‘Jonathan Slick’ High Life in N.Y. I 214: Sometimes they transmogrify what I write till I shouldn’t know it was mine.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1887		P. M’Neill Blawearie 84: We [...] made our way here and are quite transmogrified to find everything so outrageously transformed.
1896		G.F. Northall Warwickshire Word-Book 249: Transmogrify. To transform.

In derivatives

transmogrifier (n.)

(UK Und.) one who disguises stolen watches for resale.

1823

‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 179: A Transmogrifier; one who so changeth the works and the cases of watches, that the real owners cannot recognise their property.