Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A pain in the intestines; colic.
  • noun Ill temper; sulkiness; the sulks: as, to have the mulligrubs.
  • noun The dobson or hellgrammite.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Slang A griping of the intestines; colic.
  • noun Slang Hence, sullenness; the sulks.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete colic
  • noun slang sullenness; sulky behaviour

Etymologies

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Examples

  • "mulligrubs," all stand out in my memory as tragic, and no doubt prepared me to appreciate tragedy later on as a fine art.

    Boycotted And Other Stories Talbot Baines Reed 1872

  • Even a rival at the Gold Hill Daily News noticed that this favorite writer is melancholy; he has got the mulligrubs. . .

    LIGHTING OUT FOR THE TERRITORY JR. ROY MORRIS 2010

  • Even a rival at the Gold Hill Daily News noticed that this favorite writer is melancholy; he has got the mulligrubs. . .

    LIGHTING OUT FOR THE TERRITORY JR. ROY MORRIS 2010

  • She filled the one brimful for her guest, and the other more modestly to about two-thirds of its capacity, for her own use, repeating, as the rich cordial trickled forth in a smooth oily stream — “Right Rosa Solis, as ever washed mulligrubs out of a moody brain!”

    The Fortunes of Nigel 2004

  • If Cas could pull out of it and lead a normal, useful life, I certainly should not have had the mulligrubs.

    Time For The Stars Heinlein, Robert A. 1956

  • It is easy enough to say that a pessimist is a person afflicted with an incurable case of mulligrubs -- one whom nothing in all earth or heaven or hades pleases; one who usually deserves nothing, yet grumbles if he gets it.

    The Complete Works of Brann the Iconoclast, Volume 12 1919

  • He has the mulligrubs because he cannot plant himself on a Congressional cushion, or because he finds his wife awake and nursing a curtain lecture to keep it warm when he falls through the front fence at 5 o'clock in the morning.

    The Complete Works of Brann the Iconoclast, Volume 12 1919

  • The above slug of "taffy" was accompanied by a woodcut portrait of Miss H-- s which made her resemble a half-naked Indian squaw suffering with an acute attack of mulligrubs, superinduced by an overfeed of baked dog.

    The Complete Works of Brann the Iconoclast, Volume 1. 1898

  • Idleness lies in bed sick of the mulligrubs where industry finds health and wealth.

    Brave Men and Women Fuller, O E 1884

  • Idleness lies in bed sick of the mulligrubs where industry finds health and wealth.

    Brave Men and Women Their Struggles, Failures, And Triumphs 1867

Comments

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  • There was a band playing tonight at Cantina Roja. I think they were supposed to be called The Misfits but I referred to them as The Mulligrubs. They didn't seem to mind.

    July 11, 2008

  • Perhaps it was in tribute to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness? (see melancholy, mubblefubbles, blue devils)

    July 11, 2008

  • She, you know such lovely words for the grumbly mumblies.

    July 11, 2008

  • E'er they be grumbly, and e'er they be mumbly..

    July 11, 2008

  • "The mulligrubs"= the blues. I should like to know just what one of these dread beasts look like?

    July 16, 2008

  • "The barber chuckled. 'You're a philosopher, sir, a philosopher.'

    'I am, but I'm a blue one. I have the blue mulligrubs.'

    'The blue mulligrubs?' Cowper said. I think I know them.'"

    -- The Winner of Sorrow by Brian Lynch, p 34

    July 12, 2009

  • JM grumps towards the mulligrubs as a career goal.

    November 22, 2009

  • "You, Ishmail, phthisic pawn, glutton for musty old manuscripts, puny scribbling runt, martyr to a myriad of sulks, doldrums and mulligrubs, you who lit out, packing just a smock, four shirts and a cotton hanky in your bag. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition

    August 11, 2010

  • "n. The dobson or hellgrammite." --CD&C

    February 29, 2012

  • Enmeshed by so grievous events

    The sharp pang of panic relents.

    Sour fate dully rubs

    And makes mulligrubs

    From fevers of old discontents.

    July 31, 2017

  • A state of depression or low spirits

    January 8, 2018