Meanings
mungo1
plural mungos · plural mungoes
- countableuncountableA material of short fiber and inferior quality obtained by deviling woollen rags or the remnants of woollen goods, specifically those of felted, milled, or hard-spun woollen cloth, as distinguished from shoddy, or the deviled product of loose-textured woollen goods or worsted.
Tailors' clippings and remnants of fine woollen goods, such as broadcloth, etc., are devilled and spun into yarn for making cloth of nicer quality, called mungo.
1918, Henry J. Spooner, Wealth from Waste: Elimination of Waste A World Problem, George Routledge & Sons, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 200
mungo2
- obsoleteObsolete form of mung (“mung bean”).
Mungo3
plural Mungos
- A surname.
- A male given name.
1 more example
The fever left his body, and he rose to stotter about the doors; but he was still in his torments, and the mercy-seat was far from him. At last in the back end of the year came Mungo Muirhead to Caulds to the autumn communion, and nothing would serve him but he must try his hand at the storm-tossed soul.
1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide - A locality in the Balranald council area, south-western New South Wales, Australia.
Origin
- Scottish GaelicMungo
- EnglishMungo
Borrowed from Scottish Gaelic Mungo. This was the nickname of Kentigern, better known as Saint Mungo, the founder and patron saint of Glasgow, and possibly comes from the Cumbric equivalent of the Welsh fy nghu (“my dear (one)”).
More words from Scottish Gaelic
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
mungo. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mungo
“mungo.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mungo. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mungo,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mungo.
Source: mungo on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.