Mongrel
['mʌŋgr(ə)l] or ['mʌŋɡrəl]
Definition
(n.) The progeny resulting from a cross between two breeds, as of domestic animals; anything of mixed breed.
(a.) Not of a pure breed.
(a.) Of mixed kinds; as, mongrel language.
Inputed by Amanda
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. Hybrid, mule.
Editor: Spence
Definition
adj. of a mixed breed impure.—n. an animal esp. a dog of a mixed breed.—v.t. Mong′relise.—n. Mong′relism.
Inputed by Lawrence
Examples
- Such alone are the unimportant differences which Gartner is able to point out between hybrid and mongrel plants. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- A shaggy little damaged man, withal, not unlike an old dog of some mongrel breed, who has been considerably knocked about. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Andros, said Justinian emphatically, is not a true Greek, but a mongrel from the island of that name, where I found him a shepherd lad. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- To inquire what he might have done, if he had had any boldness, would be like inquiring what a mongrel cur might do, if it had the spirit of a tiger. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Hybrid plants produced from a reciprocal cross generally resemble each other closely, and so it is with mongrel plants from a reciprocal cross. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- The variability, however, in the successive generations of mongrels is, perhaps, greater than in hybrids. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- This greater variability in mongrels than in hybrids does not seem at all surprising. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- Both hybrids and mongrels can be reduced to either pure parent form, by repeated crosses in successive generations with either parent. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
Typed by Corinne