mongrel

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
10
Words With Friends
14
Letters
7
Pronunciation
/ˈmʌŋ.ɡɹəl/
See all 3 pronunciations
/ˈmʌŋ.ɡɹəl/ · /ˈmɑŋ.ɡɹəl/(US) · /ˈmʌŋ.ɡɹəl/(US)

Definition of mongrel

5 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. (derogatory, often)Anything of mixed kind.
    “That dog is a mongrel; who knows what breed it could be!”
See all 5 definitions

noun

  1. (derogatory, often)Anything of mixed kind.
    “That dog is a mongrel; who knows what breed it could be!”
  2. (derogatory, ethnic, offensive, often, slur)Anything of mixed kind.
    “The natives of Banda are very much mixed, and it is probable that at least three-fourths of the population are mongrels, in various degrees of Malay, Papuan, Arab, Portuguese, and Dutch. The first two form the bases of the larger portion, and the dark skins, pronounced features, and more or less frizzly hair of the Papuans preponderates.”
  3. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, slang)A thuggish, obnoxious, or contemptible person; (often preceded by "poor") a pitiable person.
    “"Yanto bloody Evans!" Jack stuttered with rage. "Yanto bloody Evans! That... that... bloody mongrel! D'you know who he is? He's the one who knocked me back for a bit of extra timber before the roof fell in on me!"”
    “But somebody's got to tell these mums and dads why their kids died, why this mongrel thinks he can wipe them out like a dirty rag.”
  4. (Australia, slang)An erect penis; an erection.

adj

  1. (not-comparable)Of mixed breed, nature, or origin; of or like a mongrel.
    “English spelling is often regarded as confusing and unpredictable due to the mongrel nature of that language.”
    “a mongrel dog”
    “America is an improbable idea. A mongrel nation built of ever-changing disparate parts, it is held together by a notion, the notion that all men are created equal, though everyone knows that most men consider themselves better than someone.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Middle English mongrel, equivalent to mong (“mixture”) + -rel (pejorative diminutive); from Old English ġemang (“mingling”) (whence Modern English among), from Proto-Germanic *mang- (“mix; mixture”).

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