Meaning

2 senses

  1. (US, intransitive)To behave like a mugwump.

  2. (US, intransitive)To purport to stay aloof and independent, especially from party politics.

Origin

The noun is borrowed from Massachusett mugquomp, mummugquomp (“war leader”). Folk etymolog

The noun is borrowed from Massachusett mugquomp, mummugquomp (“war leader”). Folk etymology reinterpreted it as referring to a person who sat on the fence with their mug (“face”) on one side and wump (“rump”) on the other, which influenced political cartoons during the 1884 United States presidential election.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

mugwumps, mugwumping, mugwumped, mugwumped

regular · Lesson

Base formmugwump · to mugwump
3rd person singularmugwumps
Present participlemugwumping
Past simplemugwumped
Past participlemugwumped

Tenses

mugwump · mugwumped · will mugwump · have mugwumped

Point at a form to see it in a sentence.Tap a form to see it in a sentence.

Present simpleLesson

I, you, we, theymugwump
he, she, itmugwumps

Present perfectLesson

I, you, we, theyhave mugwumped
he, she, ithas mugwumped

Future simple (will)Lesson

all personswill mugwump

Past simpleLesson

all personsmugwumped

Lessons for this word

3 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
mugA2muggermuggymugwortmukbangmulberry

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

mugwump — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto