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  1. mongrel love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. An animal or a plant resulting from various interbreedings, especially a dog of mixed or undetermined breed.
  2. n. A cross between different breeds, groups, or varieties, especially a mixture that is or appears to be incongruous.
  3. adj. Of mixed origin or character.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. 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).
  2. n. Specifically, a dog of mixed breed.
  3. n. Anything of mixed breed; anything that is a mixture of incongruous elements.
  4. Of a mixed or impure breed; begotten or made up of different kinds: usually in a disreputable sense.
  5. To make mongrel; mongrelize.

Wiktionary

  1. n. Someone or something of mixed kind or uncertain origin; especially, a dog that is such.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. The progeny resulting from a cross between two breeds, as of domestic animals; anything of mixed breed.
  2. adj. (Zoöl.) Not of a pure breed.
  3. adj. Of mixed kinds.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. an inferior dog or one of mixed breed
  2. n. derogatory term for a variation that is not genuine; something irregular or inferior or of dubious origin

Etymologies

  1. Late 15th century, from obsolete mong ("mixture") +‎ -rel (“(pejorative)”); from Old English gemong ("mingling") (whence Modern English among), from Proto-Germanic *mang- (“mix”). (Wiktionary)
  2. 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.”

    Last Leaves from Dunk Island

  • “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.”

    Simon & Schuster: No Uncertain Terms

  • “There was what we call mongrel forest, tall trees and thick brush underneath.”

    Roy Blakely, Pathfinder

  • “The word mongrel, by definition, is not an offensive term.”

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en]

  • “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’.”

    Cheeseburger Gothic » The comments that don’t make it in.

  • “But even here the thoroughbred is often more highly prized than the mongrel, which is as tactful an outlet for racialism as any.”

    An Autobiography

  • “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 Young Man in a Hurry and Other Short Stories

  • “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.”

    AustralianIT.com.au | Top Stories

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synonyms (5)

Words with the same meaning

  1. Aus
  1. bitser
  1. cut
  1. mutt
  1. bitsa

hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. variation

same context (24)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. collie
  2. spaniel
  3. mangy
  4. terrier
  1. half-grown
  2. pariah
  3. motley
  4. polyglot
  1. coyote
  2. mutt
  3. mastiff
  4. cur
  1. white-livered
  2. bitch
  3. poodle
  4. pup
  1. hound
  2. ravenous
  3. crossbred
  4. three-headed
  1. greyhound
  2. setter
  3. globalization
  4. retriever

reverse dictionary (37)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. pariah dog
  2. pie-dog
  3. pye-dog
  4. feist
  5. fice
  6. hybrid
  7. mongrelize
  1. mungrel
  2. lurcher
  3. keout
  4. limmer
  5. demiwolf
  6. mongrel
  7. crossbred
  1. cur
  2. tullibee
  3. messin
  4. piebald
  5. crossbreed
  6. half-bred
  7. ill-bred
  1. tyke
  2. cadaverous
  3. razorback hog
  4. razorbacked hog
  5. mutt
  6. mongrelise
  7. razorback
  1. variety hybrid
  2. bastard
  3. bastardize
  4. cold-blooded
  5. mule
  6. participle
  7. sheepbiter
  1. tiger cat
  2. true

tags (2)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. meta
  1. epithet

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Lists

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Comments

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  • 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

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‘mongrel’ has been looked up 2956 times, loved by 2 people, added to 38 lists, commented on 10 times, and has a Scrabble score of 10.