▪ I. mutt slang (orig. U.S.).
(mʌt)
Also mut.
[abbrev. mutton-head (mutton 9 b]
a. One who is stupid, ignorant, awkward, blundering, incompetent, or the like; a blockhead, dullard, or fool; also, non-pejoratively, a person, fellow.
| 1901 ‘H. McHugh’ Down Line 79, I knew that Clara Jane would cancel the contract with the mutt that mixed in just as soon as she saw the automobile snap. 1910 O. Johnson Varmint 377 Engaged to that Ver Planck fellow that was hanging around. I think he's a mutt. 1915 Wodehouse Psmith, Journalist xvi. 116 This ain't him. This is some other mutt. 1920 Blackw. Mag. Feb. 176/2 Dougal, the elder brother, was a quiet, inoffensive kind of a mutt. 1926 Spectator 1 May 813/1 Not doubting the poor mutt's love for her. 1929 [see goop]. 1942 ‘M. Innes’ Daffodil Affair iv. 146 Why couldn't you keep to the racket, you poor mut, and leave tinkering alone! 1955 W. Gaddis Recognitions ii. vii. 597 Got to look up a mutt named Chavenay. 1972 Police Rev. 10 Nov. 1444/2 Some male driver—poor mutt!—will be fiddling with the jack. 1973 D. May Laughter in Djakarta xii. 203 The poor mutt must have driven it along the bank. |
b. A term of contempt applied to a dog, esp. a mongrel.
Quot. 1904 refers to a horse.
| 1904 Outing XLV. 170/2 Watch that mut curl up out there. 1906 H. Green Actors' Boarding House 335 A fellow can't leave nothin' on his bed without that mutt chawin' it up! 1911 R. W. Chambers Common Law x. 310 Now fat old woman..Arrive to exercise their various dogs; And 'round and 'round the little mutts all run. 1927 Ladies' Home Jrnl. Dec. 4/1 Be careful the mutt doesn't get into a race with a caterpillar some day, and die of heart collapse. 1932 Sun (Baltimore) 15 Oct. 20/5 There are people who especially desire a mutt dog. 1949 Sat. Even. Post 16 Apr. 44/2 That cat! That mutt! they fight it out And back and forth they shuttle. 1970 New Yorker 29 Aug. 50/3 The cast includes a Sheepdog.., a Mutt Bitch. 1972 C. Weston Poor, Poor Ophelia (1973) vi. 29 Two barefoot hippies were sharing a bag of potato chips with a happy-looking mutt. |
c. Phr. Mutt and Jeff [from the names of two characters called Mutt and Jeff, one tall and the other short, in a popular cartoon series by H. C. Fisher (1884–1954), American cartoonist]. (a) A stupid pair of men; stupid dialogue; (b) (see quot. 1943); (c) as adj., deaf.
| 1917 E. E. Cummings Let. 4 June (1969) 26 By failing to get up..I escaped departing with the bums mutts and jeffs (not to say ginks, slobs, and punks) who came over with us. 1937 M. Huxley in A. Huxley Lett. (1969) 426 A sort of Mutt and Jeff on war and peace and religion. 1937 Partridge Dict. Slang 545/2 Mutt and Jeff, the British War Medal and Victory Medal: military: 1918. 1943 C. H. Ward-Jackson It's a Piece of Cake 43 Mutt and Jeff, the King George V silver Jubilee and the Edward VIII Coronation medals, or ribbons, worn together; or the 1918 Victory and Overseas medals or ribbons worn together. 1949 Sun (Baltimore) 10 Dec. 24/5 Richard ―, identified as the taller man in the recent series of ‘Mutt and Jeff’ robberies here, yesterday pleaded guilty to armed robbery. 1960 J. Franklyn Dict. Rhyming Slang 98/2 Mutt & Jeff, deaf. 20 C. Current in the theatrical world, and formed on the names of the two famous stripcartoon characters. 1973 Washington Post 21 Nov. C2 The women..call the two cops..‘Mutt and Jeff’. Who is Jeff? ‘The white one..Mutt is always being kicked around. Jeff makes him do all the work.’ 1974 D. Seaman The Bomb xx. 200 He silently named them Mutt and Jeff. One [man] stood well over six feet..while the other barely reached to his mate's armpits. |
▪ II. mutt
variant of math2; obs. form of mote v.1