mug
Americannoun
-
mugs
plural
-
a drinking cup, usually cylindrical in shape, having a handle, and often of a heavy substance, as earthenware.
-
the quantity it holds.
-
Slang.
-
the face.
-
the mouth.
-
an exaggerated facial expression; grimace, as in acting.
-
a thug, ruffian, or other criminal.
-
-
British Slang. a gullible person; dupe; fool.
verb (used with object)
-
mugs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
mugged,
past participle, past
-
mugging
present participle
-
to assault or menace, especially with the intention of robbery.
-
Slang. to photograph (a person), especially in compliance with an official or legal requirement.
verb (used without object)
-
mugs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
mugged,
past participle, past
-
mugging
present participle
noun
-
slang a person's face or mouth
get your ugly mug out of here!
-
slang a grimace
-
slang a gullible person, esp one who is swindled easily
-
a worthless activity
verb
-
informal (tr) to attack or rob (someone) violently
-
slang (intr) to pull faces or overact, esp in front of a camera
noun
-
a drinking vessel with a handle, usually cylindrical and made of earthenware
-
Also called: mugful. the quantity held by a mug or its contents
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
mugsimple
-
mugssimple
-
have muggedperfect
-
has muggedperfect
-
am muggingprogressive
-
are muggingprogressive
-
is muggingprogressive
-
have been muggingperfect progressive
-
has been muggingperfect progressive
Past
-
muggedsimple
-
had muggedperfect
-
was muggingprogressive
-
were muggingprogressive
-
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:
“If someone is from a city we have, we give them that mug, or if they’ve traveled to that city we swap stories and memories,” the finance executive from Pennsylvania says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
They presented him with a special gift - a "thank you" mug with a photo of his skydive so he can remember it every time he has a cup of tea.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
They’ve come to this cesspool to find the villainous Krem, an unrecognizably vile Matthias Schoenaerts with a mug that’s been pierced all over like he face-planted into a pile of thumbtacks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2026
Instead of the one-click default to your laptop’s last opened tab, you opened Etsy and bought a ceramic mug from a maker you’d been following on Instagram.
From Salon ● May 27, 2026
Mom tapped her fingers on the side of a steaming mug.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
I don’t use my Starbucks mugs to entertain, but that’s the only time Michael Sullivan and his husband pull them off the shelf.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
“We’re selling these five, and people can take the copyright and put them on coffee mugs, or make an AI movie, or whatever they want to do with them,” O’Meara said, laughing.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
"Australia will not let the social media giants take us for mugs."
From Barron's ● Apr. 30, 2026
And they said that efforts to offer things like comfier seats and ceramic mugs in its coffee shops might not attract younger customers.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 18, 2026
He puts the mugs in the microwave, then fills a plate with cookies.
From "The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman" by Gennifer Choldenko
Spencer Pratt wasn’t mugged by reality, but it literally burned his house down.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 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
But I needed New York — the weather, the danger of possibly getting mugged, working in the theater while waiting tables or working screwy jobs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 7, 2024
I told him I’d gotten mugged in Peshawar.
From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
Outside in the streets, the cosplayers enjoyed mugging for the cameras or taking selfies and laughing at themselves and others while interacting with their favorite celebrities.
From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2026
She admitted telling police in 2013 she had lost her work mobile phone in a mugging, but later found it had not been taken.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
It all certainly casts a spell, but the narrative devolves into atmospheric mush interpolated with too many images of Hathaway mugging and posing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026
After that earlier Warner mugging, I wrote about the “legalized economic vandalism that antitrust has become.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 16, 2025
And mugging for the cameras with Cinnamon the rat licking her nose.
From "Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli
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.
