1741 Philos. Trans. 1737–8 (Royal Soc.) 40 442 The two famous Antidotes, the Mungos-root, and the Serpentine-stone.

1759 B. Stillingfleet in tr. Misc. Tracts Nat. Hist. 155 (note) As soon as this serpent appears the weesel attacks him, and if she chances to be bit by him, she immediately runs to find a certain vegetable; upon eating which she returns, and renews the fight. The Indians are of opinion, that this plant is the mungos.

1838 Penny Cycl. XII. 429/2 The story of the Ichneumon Mungo..having recourse to the plant Hampaddu Tanah, or Mungo root, as an antidote when bitten by serpents.

1752 J. Hill Gen. Nat. Hist. III. 550 Ray and some others..call it Viverra Indica quæ Mungo Lusitanis, Mungathia Ceylonensibus; we call it the Mungo or Mungose.

1752 J. Hill Gen. Nat. Hist. III. 549 Mustela griseo et albido variegata... The tabbied Mungo.

1775 T. Martyn Elements Nat. Hist. I. i. 30 Pharaoh's Rat or Mungo. Viverra Ichneumon.

a1832 Encycl. Metrop. (1845) XX. 236/2 This animal is known in India, of which it is a native, by the name of Mungo or Mungutia.

1859 J. Bowring Visit to Philippine Islands xvi. 274 Oxen, swine, buffaloes, deer, goats..flying squirrels, dogs, rats, mungoes and other quadrupeds, are found in various stages of domesiticity and wildness.

1768 I. Bickerstaff Padlock i. vi. 11 What e'er's to be done, Poor black must run; Mungo here, Mungo dere, Mungo every where.

1769 H. Walpole Mem. George III (1794) III. 211 Dyson, as usual was..ill-treated by the Opposition; Colonel Barré, the day before, having baptized him by the name of Mungo, a black slave in a new farce called The Padlock, who is described as employed by everybody in all jobs and servile offices.

1794 Times 12 Feb. 3/2 The manner in which the Black business was settled,..was this:—The husband..desired his wife to go where she pleased, (after she said she'd live with no one but the Black) and Mungo was taken by a press gang.

1798 Monthly Mag. Mar. 184/1 Might not New Yorkers give encouragement to the poor Scotch and Irish emigrants..and thus totally do away the mungo and the tawney breeds?

1803 J. Minshull Sprightly Widow Prol. Ye sons of Roman laws, exact the same, No Squaw your mamma..nor Indian name; No Mungo tribe, with crops of wool to shear.

1824 R. B. Peake Americans Abroad (1884) ii. iv. 14/1 Oh, the tall Yankee with the mungo! that fatal beef! I shall lose the postillion's place.

1839 P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 163 (note) Heatley, the trumpet major,..and Fitzhenry, an old mungo and pupil of mine on the tambourine.

1941 R. Graves Proceed, Sergeant Lamb vi. 95 Advancing therefore to Sir James and gently tapping him on the shoulder, this mungo said: ‘Massa, you no speak here!’

1770 Let. in Oxf. Mag. 4 229/1 But in the year 1770 the ladies of the first quality, the Mungoes, the superiors of the times, have abrogated [printed arrogated] the old Salic laws of libertinism, and openly set up a tavern in profest rivalry of Boodle's, Arthur's, and Almack's.

1857 Post Office Directory Yorks. 1001 Mungo Merchants and Dealers [40 entries].

1858 Brit. Assoc. Rep. 160 A large quantity of rag wool called shoddy and mungo imported from Germany.

1860 S. Jubb Hist. Shoddy-trade 19 The principal part of a rag machine is the swift..; the coarser set swifts are used to grind soft rags into shoddy; the finer set ones, to tear cloth rags into mungo.

1860 S. Jubb Hist. Shoddy-trade 32 Mungo rag is either old or new.

1875 Encycl. Brit. I. 176 Mingo is even a shorter description of fibre, and is made in the same way [as shoddy] from old rags.

1884 Cassell's Family Mag. Feb. 155/2 A great many people are..occupied in cutting out the seams and button-holes of old cloth clothes... These are called mongoe-cutters, and the prepared woollen rags are known as mongoe.

1961 H. Blackshaw & R. Brightman Dict. Dyeing 116 Mungo, the poorest grade of shoddy, being that obtained from rags, etc., and from materials which have been felted.

1973 Materials & Technol. VI. iii. 246 Fiercer mechanical action is needed to disintegrate hard rags and the material obtained from them is ‘mungo’ containing many short fibres.

2000 Times 7 Oct. 23/2 She comes from Batley, among the shoddy and mungo mills.