mutt

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In American English, a mutt is a mixed breed dog.

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Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun Informal A mongrel dog.
  2. noun Informal A stupid person; a dolt.
  3. Word History
    Clipping not of sheep but of a word having to do with sheep has given us our term mutt for a mongrel dog. Clipping or abbreviating words, a standard process of word formation, sheared mutt from muttonhead, a pejorative term meaning "a stupid person” based on the notion that sheep are stupid. Mutt in its first recorded use in 1901 is used in the same senses as muttonhead, but it is soon recorded (1904) as a term of contempt for a horse and then (1906) for a dog. We can be reasonably certain that the New Yorker critic writing in 1970 that "The cast includes a Sheepdog, . . . a Mutt Bitch,” had no awareness that a sheepdog would make the ideal mutt.

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Examples (50)

  • “What kind of mutt is that?” an eleven- or twelve-year-old with a sandy mop of Rasta hair asked me. —  4th ofJuly - Patterson
  • Nothing but a mutt, a New Orleans fence-jumper, but he had lots of Catahoula hound in him -- whitish-brownish fur and eyes that were pale pale blue, almost silver. —  F ;SF; - vol 104 issue 04 - April 2003
  • What brings you here Marty was trying to decide the best way to answer that question when a mangy gray mutt, as fat as Hagerman was thin, pushed open the screen door and slumped onto the porch. —  AnalogSFF,June2007
  • A smart mutt, a sophisticated mutt maybe, but a mutt all the same. —  Step on a Crack by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
  • For that kind of mutt, ten grand can be a lot of dough. —  Gone by Lisa Gardner
 

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