mug

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A large cup with a handle, used for hot drinks.

   She poured the coffee into a big blue mug.

2. 2
   verb

   To attack and rob someone in a public place.

   He was mugged on his way home from work last night.

3. 3
   noun

   A person's face.

   Get your ugly mug out of my photo!

4. 4
   noun

   A person who is easily fooled or cheated.

   He's such a mug that he believed her excuse again.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Mug first denoted a measure of salt and then, in the early 16th century, a large earthenware vessel or bowl; it acquired its familiar drinking-vessel sense in the mid-17th century. Because 18th-century mugs often bore grotesque human faces, mug may have developed the slang sense “face,” which probably led to its use for a foolish or gullible person. The verb meaning “rob or attack” ultimately derives from the face sense through boxing slang for striking someone in the face.

Early 16th century (originally Scots and northern English, denoting "earthenware, pot, jug"), of unknown origin, perhaps from North Germanic (compare Swedish mugg (“mug, jug”), Norwegian mugge (“pitcher, open can for warm drinks”), Danish mugge), or Low German mokke, mukke (“mug”), German Low German Muck (“drinking cup”), Dutch mok (“mug”), also of unknown origin. Perhaps related to Old English muga (“stack”) and Old Norse múgr (“mass, heap (of corn)”). Compare also Middle English mug, mog (“a measure of salt”).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary