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Mutt can now be used with either affection or disdain to refer to a dog that is not purebred, but in the word's early history, in the U.S. around the turn of the 20th century, it could also be used to describe a person—and not kindly: mutt was another word for "fool." The word's history lies in another insult. It comes from muttonhead, another Americanism that also means essentially "fool." Muttonhead had been around since the early 19th century but it was not unlike an older insult with the same meaning: people had been calling one another "sheep's heads" since the mid-16th century.
Examples of mutt in a Sentence
New Atlas, 15 May 2025
Remember when this series started, the Nuggets were heavy underdogs, viewed as mutts.
—Troy Renck, Denver Post, 11 May 2025
What the end of this Kings series affirmed is that the Oilers have a pound’s worth of mutts ready to step up.
—Daniel Nugent-Bowman, New York Times, 2 May 2025
Jones said both of his new cars – a BMW iX and a Polestar 3 – seem higher quality than his Teslas and comfortably haul his two massive dogs, a 170-pound Newfoundland and a 70-pound mutt.
—Bloomberg, Mercury News, 24 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mutt
Cite this Entry
“Mutt.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mutt. Accessed 28 May. 2025.
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