mug
Americannoun
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mugs
plural
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a drinking cup, usually cylindrical in shape, having a handle, and often of a heavy substance, as earthenware.
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the quantity it holds.
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Slang.
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the face.
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the mouth.
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an exaggerated facial expression; grimace, as in acting.
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a thug, ruffian, or other criminal.
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British Slang. a gullible person; dupe; fool.
verb (used with object)
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mugs,
present (3rd person singular)
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mugged,
past participle, past
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mugging
present participle
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to assault or menace, especially with the intention of robbery.
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Slang. to photograph (a person), especially in compliance with an official or legal requirement.
verb (used without object)
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mugs,
present (3rd person singular)
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mugged,
past participle, past
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mugging
present participle
noun
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slang a person's face or mouth
get your ugly mug out of here!
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slang a grimace
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slang a gullible person, esp one who is swindled easily
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a worthless activity
verb
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informal (tr) to attack or rob (someone) violently
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slang (intr) to pull faces or overact, esp in front of a camera
noun
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a drinking vessel with a handle, usually cylindrical and made of earthenware
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Also called: mugful. the quantity held by a mug or its contents
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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mugsimple
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mugssimple
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have muggedperfect
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has muggedperfect
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am muggingprogressive
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are muggingprogressive
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is muggingprogressive
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have been muggingperfect progressive
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has been muggingperfect progressive
Past
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muggedsimple
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had muggedperfect
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was muggingprogressive
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were muggingprogressive
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had been muggingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of mug
First recorded in 1560–70; probably from Scandinavian; compare Swedish mugg, Norwegian, Danish mugge “drinking cup”; sense “face” apparently transferred from cups adorned with grotesque faces; sense “to assault” from earlier pugilistic slang “to strike in the face, fight”
Explanation
Mug is a funny word that could represent a cup, your face, or even what you do when you rob someone. And, if you mug someone for their mug, you may end up getting a mug shot taken of your guilty face. Confusing? Read on. A mug is an informal vessel for drinking coffee or tea, as opposed to a china tea cup or a demitasse espresso cup, for example. Informally, a mug is a face: that's why a mug shot of a prisoner is a picture of his face right after he has been arrested. When it's a verb, mug means "rob someone while threatening violence." This meaning came from an earlier definition, "to strike someone in the face (or the mug)."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A press conference displayed mug shots as First Assistant US Attorney Bill Essayli intoned the arrests "prove what we have been saying."
From Barron's ● Oct. 27, 2026
Seated in a brown leather armchair while holding a coffee mug, Michigan’s Democratic Senate nominee lays claim to his Muslim faith in straightforward, affecting terms.
From Salon ● Oct. 23, 2026
"To explain it, imagine a mug and a doughnut," he said.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026
She shows me a plastic baby walker with a jagged broken leg and a Christmas Santa mug with no handle.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
“There he is,” Dad says, pointing his mug at me.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
Waiters weave through packed aisles carrying foaming one-liter mugs, and strangers at long wooden tables quickly become friends.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2026
The NHS advises pregnant women, external to keep caffeine intake below 200mg a day, about two mugs of filter coffee, as studies have linked it to low birth weight and other complications.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
A&W is known for frosty glass mugs, but our root beers came in quart-sized waxy paper containers shaped like traffic cones.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
I have no idea what children will make of a movie with as many semi-serious gags about extortionate legal bills as silly ones where a spider mugs a bug.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
I washed and dried my dishes and our mugs, then wiped down the counter.
From "Keep It Together, Keiko Carter" by Debbi Michiko Florence
Perhaps the mayor will now muster some sympathy for businesses mugged in similar schemes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
Also: What kind of dingus gets mugged on Fifth Avenue?
From Salon ● Mar. 23, 2026
Ultrapure-water projects are big, one-off beasts that everybody and his brother wants to build, so even the smart operators can watch their margins get mugged the minute capital spending gets a head cold.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 9, 2025
Backstage in the green room Ferrell’s band, whose members have taken to calling her “sissy” — the Southernism for “sister” — mugged for the camera, taking selfies to send back home to Nashville.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 2024
He was a tall, confident man in his forties who walked the streets wearing expensive suits and alligator shoes but was never mugged.
From "Bodega Dreams" by Ernesto Quinonez
Mogging - not to be confused with mugging or mugging someone off - refers to outshining or dominating someone, most often in looks.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026
Too often, it looked like a regulatory mugging of children with rare diseases.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026
No other conference-affiliated team endures the annual potential midseason mugging from an established independent like USC.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 7, 2025
In a statement, Haigh said she told police she had lost her phone during a mugging on a night out in 2013 but later found it had not been taken.
From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2024
I stand and Scrappy joins me in mean mugging Dalton.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
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