mangy
Americanadjective
-
mangier,
comparative
-
mangiest
superlative
-
having, caused by, or like the mange.
-
a mangy trick.
-
a mangy little suburb.
adjective
-
having or caused by mange
a mangy dog
-
scruffy or shabby
a mangy carpet
-
informal stingy or miserly
a mangy reward
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of mangy
Explanation
Imagine something really disgusting — crusty, dirty, falling apart — you know, like zombie flesh. If it’s shoddy, gross, and really, really cruddy, it can be called mangy. If you want a really insulting adjective, you can’t do better than the word mangy. A mangy dog has a skin disease carried by mites that causes the animal to lose its hair and develop crusty patches on its body. Or, if you own a mangy sweater, it is probably threadbare and stained. As you can imagine, you should probably think twice before calling a person mangy!
Vocabulary lists containing mangy
The Jungle Book
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The Help
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Guts
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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:
Svelto is accustomed to seeing coyotes roaming around her neighborhood in Pasadena but they’re usually a lot smaller and mangy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 24, 2026
He detonates narrative warfare wherever he goes, so it’s difficult to decipher what is planted to create spectacle to feed the mangy cult and what is a true trash fire of a human.
From Salon ● Mar. 12, 2024
The women wear black slips, combat boots and mangy fur coats; the men, gray suits and conservatively wide ties.
From New York Times ● May 21, 2023
Since 2018, there have been approximately 120 to 150 reports of mangy bears each year in Virginia.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 6, 2022
“Stand and fight, you mangy cur!” yelled Sir Cadogan.
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
Instead, it embraced something mangier and more tethered to general youth culture.
From New York Times ● Nov. 3, 2016
And after that to be ready, al mangier ou al revele; i.e., to eat or to revel, according to the ordinance of the master and wardens of the fraternity.
From Old and New London Volume I by Walter Thornbury
Hunters with the highest kill count, the mangiest kill or the largest or smallest take home cash, belt buckles, hunting gear or other prizes.
From US News ● Jan. 22, 2016
Ill-shaven and semicomatose, Belushi plays the mangiest animal of them all.
From Time Magazine Archive
Orange-robed Buddhist monks contemplate under bougainvillaea and tamarind trees, watched by some of the mangiest dogs west of El Paso.
From Time Magazine Archive
One and all, to the mangiest, surliest dog, Were quite eager to bark for his Worship of Quog.
From The Glugs of Gosh by C. J. (Clarence James) Dennis
This she opened with the tears streaming down her face, and out there waddled the fattest, ugliest, and mangiest little pug dog that I have ever seen.
From Round the Red Lamp by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
