subs. (American).—News; MUNG-NEWS = false news.
1849. New York Express, 17 Feb. As many of our citizens who intend to go to California may base their arrangements upon the MUNG NEWS of some of the papers, we conceive it to be our duty to state that most of these letters are fictions.
Verb. (tramps’).—See quots.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, i. 265. I sold small articles of Tunbridge ware, perfumery, &c., &c., and by MUNGING (begging) over them—sometimes in Latin—got a better living than I expected, or probably deserved.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v. MUNG. To solicit; to beg.
1893. P. H. EMERSON, Signor Lippo, 52. Many’s the time you’ve been waiting on me coming home to give you some of the grub I’ve MUNGED.
