Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An animal or a plant resulting from various interbreedings, especially a dog of mixed or undetermined breed.
- n. A cross between different breeds, groups, or varieties, especially a mixture that is or appears to be incongruous.
- adj. Of mixed origin or character.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An individual or a breed of animals resulting from repeated crossing or mixture of several different varieties; the progeny of varieties, and especially of artificial varieties, as distinguished from the hybrid, or cross between two different species (but the distinction is not always observed).
- n. Specifically, a dog of mixed breed.
- n. Anything of mixed breed; anything that is a mixture of incongruous elements.
- Of a mixed or impure breed; begotten or made up of different kinds: usually in a disreputable sense.
- To make mongrel; mongrelize.
Wiktionary
- n. Someone or something of mixed kind or uncertain origin; especially, a dog that is such.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The progeny resulting from a cross between two breeds, as of domestic animals; anything of mixed breed.
- adj. (Zoöl.) Not of a pure breed.
- adj. Of mixed kinds.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an inferior dog or one of mixed breed
- n. derogatory term for a variation that is not genuine; something irregular or inferior or of dubious origin
Etymologies
- Late 15th century, from obsolete mong ("mixture") + -rel (“(pejorative)”); from Old English gemong ("mingling") (whence Modern English among), from Proto-Germanic *mang- (“mix”). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, probably from mong, mixture, from Old English gemang; see mag- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Bull-terriers, retrievers, nondescripts — the dog-lover abhors the term mongrel — sheep dogs and cattle dogs, pointers, and, most beloved of all, Irish terriers.”
“Although mong, from the Old English gemong, meaning “mixture,” is still with us in the form of among, the word mongrel has gained an ugly, snarling connotation; for years mongrelization was a term used by racists.”
“There was what we call mongrel forest, tall trees and thick brush underneath.”
“The word mongrel, by definition, is not an offensive term.”
“Anyone who wants to test this theory is most welcome to come over my place, jump the back fence and seize the little MF in the garden 2 doors up that belongs to some feral fracking hippy whose kid calls the mongrel bird ‘Harriet’.”
“But even here the thoroughbred is often more highly prized than the mongrel, which is as tactful an outlet for racialism as any.”
“Genealogically he was classified as a mongrel cur, but genealogy, like the thermometer, does not always register correctly.”
With Sabre and Scalpel. The Autobiography of a Soldier and Surgeon
“But she was content with his answer and his rough kiss, and when he had gone out into the gray morning, calling his mongrel setter from its kennel, she went back up the stairs and threw herself on her icy bed.”
“A fierce competitor, with that hard-to-find dose of ingrained toughness often referred to as mongrel, Bird adds a new dimension of physical intimidation.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘mongrel’.
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Old words
Old words: modern English words that are old according to criteria that are still vague: Either words common to several old languages or words substantially similar in old English. Please add to or...
mother, father, bark, spit, old, fire, this, that, black, thou, to give, hand and 259 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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LIT - Ulysses - key words and phrases
money cowrie, bedraggle, omphalos, ineluctable, postprandial, bladderwrack, modality barnacle..., loofah, shipworm, cither, embattle, Malachi and 503 more...
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Shakespeare.05
vaulting, dismal, gory, malice, summons, commend, forswear, dwindle, avarice, pristine, adage, predominance and 2 more...
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Unfamiliar words from Cat's Cradle by...
conveyances, folly, anecdotes, parable, flue, dawdling, bough, spiraea, illustrious, unsung, enterprising, loafed and 116 more...
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October Words-11849
During the month of October, post at least 10 new words to this list. Make sure you cite where you read the word (book/author/pg) and quote the context/sentence where you found it. If someone has a...
desalination, Girn, incongruous, irreparably, pneumatic, metastatic, languorous, menagerie, mottled, valise, moot, deferential and 28 more...
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nachchba's Words
stentorian, blasé, ennui, concinnity, melee, photokeratitis, skiffle, refulgence, mongrel, fakir, caid, eudaimonia and 215 more...
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Twitter faves
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
niglets, aw, flakey, shiznit, thatch, sexy, bummers, hotty, eargasms, ratchetry, weird, fab and 599 more... -
Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 2465 more... -
MiaLuthien's list ♥
gambit, prehensile, coquetry, impunity, genuflect, ensconce, clavicle, delude, beget, castigate, life caching, convoluted and 478 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 3099 more... -
Words I have to learn
exasperate, felony, weld, fraud, worksheet, ransom, rehearse, preliminary, offshore, parole, infamous, sieve and 436 more...
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hedges's Words
wii, crepuscule, adumbrate, concatenation, sufi, qawwali, furry, riot, mellifluous, conspiracy, etymology, tea cozy and 369 more...
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ulyssean
... as in "by James Joyce"
stately, plump, aloft, gurgling, untonsured, chrysostomos, jowl, parapet, jesuit, indigestion, scutter, noserag and 688 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for mongrel.

agustinolvera Eclispe by Stephenie Meyer Page 80
-"Does that answer your question mongrel?" Nov 1, 2010
amacleod03 1. Derogatory description of the offspring or result of miscegenation, mixed marriage, etc.; specifically a person of mixed racial heritage. 2. Derogatory term for a person of mixed descent, whose parents are of different nationalities or different social classes. 3. Derogatory term for a person of Jewish descent. 4. A person of mixed or undefined opinions; a person whose political or religious allegiance, etc., changes according to which way the wind is blowing. 5. A person of base, low, or indeterminate status. 6. A cheat or a coward. 7. Worthless. (adjective)
Unreported in the U.S. media, the slur made headlines in Britain during the runup to elections in 2005. The Labour Party leader, Peter Hain, called Conservative leader Michael Howard an “attack mongrel.�? Howard is Jewish. Labour Party MP's seemed determined to paint this as simply a variation on “attack dog politics.�? However, it is hard to believe the denials that this was an intentional slur when campaign posters had already depicted Howard as “a Shylock.�? Jul 11, 2009
vanishedone When did Mongrel vanish? What did this Phusion Passenger do to it?
Server: Apache/2.2.4 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.4 OpenSSL/0.9.8a Phusion_Passenger/1.9.1
X-Powered-By: Phusion Passenger (mod_rails/mod_rack) 1.9.1
I hope Mongrel was sent to a good home, and not cast out to wander the streets. Sep 25, 2008
vanishedone Sorry, it vapourised when I last exited my browser. I've got a new one now. Nov 21, 2007
uselessness Oh can't I please see your session ID? ;-) Nov 21, 2007
vanishedone Oh, I forgot to add: this is a fun page on some of the odd things that have been spotted in response headers.
http://www.nextthing.org/archives/2005/08/07/fun-with-http-headers Nov 21, 2007
vanishedone I have Firefox with the Server Spy and Web Developer Toolbar extensions, both of which can check the HTTP response headers. So if I ask WDT for this page's headers I see:
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:22:39 GMT
Server: Mongrel 1.0.1
Status: 200 OK
Cache-Control: no-cache
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Set-Cookie: _session_id=tucked in my tinfoil hat; path=/; expires=Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:22:38 GMT
Vary: Accept-Encoding
Content-Encoding: gzip
Content-Length: 4202
X-Cache: MISS from squirrel.dur.ac.uk
X-Cache-Lookup: MISS from squirrel.dur.ac.uk:8080
Via: 1.0 squirrel.dur.ac.uk:8080 (squid/2.6.STABLE14-20070730)
Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
200 OK Nov 21, 2007
uselessness Ooohhh, secrety. Nov 20, 2007
john True, it is, in conjunction with Apache. How'd you figure this out? From an error message, maybe? Nov 18, 2007
vanishedone Apparently Wordie's server is Mongrel 1.0.1. Nov 17, 2007