1866. London Miscellany, 5 May, p. 102. 'Suppose they had mugged you?' 'Done what to me?' 'Mugged you. Slogged you, you know.'
2. (common).—To grimace.
1762. Collins, Miscellanies, p. 122. Wit hung her blob, ev'n Humour seem'd to mourn, And silently sat mugging o'er his urn.
1857. Dickens, Little Dorrit, i. 20. The low comedian had mugged at him in his richest manner fifty nights for a wager.
1879. Macmillan's Mag., xl. 479. He [C. J. Mathews] never mugged at the pit, as we once heard him warn Whiskerandos against doing in the second act of The Critic.
3. (common).—To rob; to swindle.
4. See Mug up.
5. (Winchester College).—1. To study: e.g., I mugged all the morning, and shall thoke this afternoon; and (2) to take pains; e.g. 'He has mugged his study, and made it quite cud.'
1866. Mansfield, School Life, 122. The præfects would . . . set to work mugging.
1890. G. Allen, The Tents of Shem, xxiv. 'Miss Knyvett,' and he paused with his brush upturned, 'you're a sight too clever for me to talk to.' 'Not clever,' Iris corrected; 'only well read. I've mugged it up out of books, that's all.' Ibid. ii. Instead of reading her 'Odyssey' and her 'Lucretius,' and mugging up amusing works on conic sections.
To cut mugs, verb. phr. (theatrical).—To grimace.
To mug oneself, verb. phr. (common).—1. To get drunk.
2. (common).—To make oneself cosy or comfortable.
To mug up, verb. phr. (theatrical).—1. To paint; to make up (q.v.)
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., iii. 203. He underwent the operation of mugging him up with oil-color, paint, black, and not forgetting the lips, red.
1876. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 193. He put on the clown's dress, got mugged up, and went into the ring.
1882. Chambers's Journal, 19 Aug., p. 530. He drew a long breath and repeated his ejaculation; 'My eye! How you do mug up, Charley! You might go through this town, ah! if you owed money in every shop, and I don't believe a soul would know you.'
1892. Milliken, 'Arry Ballads, p. 59. You're mugged up to rights.
2. (common).—To cram for examination. Also to mug.
Muggard, adj. (old).—Sullen; displeased.
Mugger, subs. (provincial).—1. A
gipsy.
1861. Cornhill Magazine, iv. 102. 'A Cumberland Mare's Nest.' The scourge of tramp and mugger, he Commanded the intruder to be shown into his snuggery.
1871. London Figaro, 1 April. But the English gipsy is another character; although the members of the Lees, Jones, Hernes, and other families proudly hold their heads as being many grades above the travelling muggers and tramping vagabonds who mend pots and kettles and re-seat old chairs.
2. (public schools').—See quot.
1883. James Payn, The 'Canon's Ward, viii. 'A mugger, that's what he is,' said the other, contemptuously; a mugger—a comprehensive term understood to include all persons with an ambition for University distinction.
3. (theatrical).—A comedian whose best point is grimace. Also mug-faker.
1892. National Observer, 27 Feb., p. 379. None had ever a more expressive
