Word.ws English Dictionary

minging

/ˈmɪŋɪŋ/

minging adjective: very unattractive; ugly.

Adjective

minging (comparative more minging, superlative most minging)

  1. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, slang) Very unattractive; ugly.
    • Once, Cookie even tried to get me to give it a go with Jez – can you believe the nerve of that? 'Why would I want to do that? He's minging.' 'Why not? It won't hurt. He never gets a shag.' 'No, Cookie. Bloody hell.' He hasn't got a clue. 'Wouldn't you be jealous?' 'No.' 'You're an idiot. Why do you...2011, Melvin Burgess, Kill All Enemies, Penguin UK, →ISBN
  2. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, slang) Unclean or dirty; disgusting and foul-smelling.
    • Cleaners are always prime suspects for office thefts but in my long experience it's nearly all employees, with a tiny remainder down to traditional burglary. My advice is to presume the Nike-clad cleaner innocent and take personal stuff home, especially minging sportswear.2011, Lucy Kellaway, The Answers: All the office questions you never dared to ask, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 82
    • How can you shag bare lads? / Is your fanny not stinging? / I bet your fanny's fucking minging2016 December 3, Millie B, “Soph Aspin Send”, performed by Millie B

Noun

minging (plural not attested)

  1. (no plural, obsolete, rare) A premonitory symptom.

Forms of minging

comparativemore minging
superlativemost minging

Origin of minging

From Scots mingin (“stinking”), present participle of ming (“to stink”), from Middle English mengen (“to mix”), from Old English mengan (“to mix”).

From the present participle of mengen (“stir up someone's mind”) or formed from English ming (“to bring to (someone's) mind”). In Middle English, came to mean 'an exhortation'. In the 17th and 18th centuries attaining a specialized medical sense before becoming obsolete.

Words that rhyme with minging

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about minging

What does minging mean?
Minging means very unattractive; ugly.
What part of speech is minging?
Minging can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce minging?
Minging is pronounced /ˈmɪŋɪŋ/.

Words near minging in the dictionary

  1. mingi
  2. mingier
  3. mingiest
  4. mingily
  5. minginess
  6. minging
  7. mingkulpa
  8. Minglanilla
  9. mingle
  10. mingle-mangle
  11. mingle-mangled

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: minging (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-uk-minging.ogg.

Cite this entry: “minging.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/minging. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.