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mangy

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From mange +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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mangy (comparative mangier, superlative mangiest)

  1. Afflicted, or looking as if afflicted, with mange.
  2. (by extension) Worn and squalid-looking; bedraggled or decrepit.
    Synonyms: decrepit, scruffy, shabby
    We stayed in a really mangy hotel in New York.
    • 1899 April, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number MII, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, [], →OCLC, part III (Conclusion):
      When we came abreast again, they faced the river, stamped their feet, nodded their horned heads, swayed their scarlet bodies; they shook towards the fierce river-demon a bunch of black feathers, a mangy skin with a pendent tail— something that looked a dried gourd; they shouted periodically together strings of amazing words that resembled no sounds of human language; and the deep murmurs of the crowd, interrupted suddenly, were like the responses of some satanic litany.
    • 2019 December 10, Yacht Club Games, Shovel Knight: King of Cards, Nintendo 3DS, level/area: Spectral Ravine:
      Specter Knight: 'YOUR QUEST TO BECOME KING OF CARDS HAS NOT... GONE UNNOTICED.' / King Knight: 'AH, WORD HAS REACHED THE SLUMS, HAS IT? AM I TO TRAVEL WITH AN ENTOURAGE OF MANGY BEGGARS, NOW?'
  3. Contemptible, despicable, low.
    • 1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros[1], London: Jonathan Cape, page 33:
      And he smote Corinius on his shaven jowl with the dice box, calling him cheat and mangy rascal, whereupon Corinius drew forth a bodkin to smite him in the neck withal; []

Translations

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Further reading

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