释义 |
mugging, vbl. n.|ˈmʌgɪŋ| [f. mug v.3 + -ing1.] 1. orig. slang. The action of mug v.3 2; spec. robbery with violence. Also attrib.
1846Swell's Night Guide 75, I knows that 'ere whitehouse warment..would chaff—and you knows I'm soon shirty, and then we should have a mugging match. 1866J. E. Brogden Provincial Words Lincolnshire 131, I gave him a sound mugging, he was so chappy. a1876E. Leigh Gloss. Words Dial. Cheshire (1877) 139 ‘To receive a muggin’ is to be beaten. 1939Fortune July 168/3 The vicious art of ‘mugging’ by which a Negro thug grabs the wayfarer around the neck, from behind, while two others with knives clean out his pockets. 1942[see mugger n.4 2]. 1949Sat. Even. Post 8 Oct. 171/2 The only things she reads in our newspapers are the murders and the muggings and the obituaries. 1951Manch. Guardian Weekly 28 June 2/2 The increase in petty thieving, in ‘muggings’ of night-time strollers, and in prostitution. 1971B. Malamud Tenants 64 Bugsy is shot..in Catshit Alley by two white pigs who had cornered him there after a mugging. 1973Guardian 7 June 9/5 Much of the [crime] increase consists of robberies after sudden attacks in the open, known commonly as mugging. 2. The action of mug v.3 3; the taking of photographs of persons. Also attrib. U.S. slang.
1899‘J. Flynt’ Tramping with Tramps iv. 389 In some cities suspicious characters are arrested on general principles and immediately photographed by the police authorities. Such towns are called ‘muggin' joints’, and the police authorities ‘muggin' fiends’. 1912A. B. Reeve Poisoned Pen (1913) ii. 58 An hour later, at headquarters, after the pedigrees had been taken, the ‘mugging’ done..O'Connor led the way into his private office. 1912A. Train Courts, Criminals & Camorra 5 ‘Mugging’ was all right, so long as you ‘mugged’ the right persons. 3. Kissing, love-making, ‘necking’. Cf. mug v.3 4.
1924P. Marks Plastic Age xxiii. 271, I hate mugging and petting and that sort of thing... Petting is jazzing love; and I hate it. 1926K. S. Prichard Working Bullocks xxvii. 242 But Deb had never kissed her mother, as she had seen children in the township kiss and cuddle up to their mothers... Her mother did not encourage ‘mugging’, as she called it. 1970C. Major Dict. Afro-Amer. Slang 83 Mugging,..making love. 4. Grimacing; making faces (see also quots.). Also fig.
1937Amer. Speech XII. 317/2 Mugging, motion picture acting. 1961Times 25 Apr. 20/4 Grimaces and gestures straight out of silent films, properly deserving the name ‘mugging’. 1968Listener 25 July 124/2 Paul Daneman made a promising start as Higgins, but dwindled into a kind of a verbal mugging. |