Word.ws English Dictionary

moggy

UK/ˈmɒ.ɡi/US/ˈmɑ.ɡi/

moggy noun: a domestic cat, especially (depreciative or derogatory) a non-pedigree or unremarkable cat.

Noun

moggy (plural moggies)

  1. (Commonwealth, Ireland, UK) A domestic cat, especially (depreciative or derogatory) a non-pedigree or unremarkable cat.
    • Cockney slang... ‘moggies’ for cats.1911, John William Horsley, I Remember: Memories of a 'Sky Pilot' in the Prison and the Slum, page 254
  2. (Northern England, Scotland, obsolete, regional) Synonym of girl: a female child or young woman.
    • ...expect not so fair an enemy as Cromwel, nor such fair quarter as now is given thee: Jockey, Jemmy, and Moggy thy she-souldier, must than all to the sword...1648, William Lilly, An Astrologicall Prediction of the Occurrances in England, Part of the Yeers 1648, 1649, 1650, page 60
    • ...in another Hut, a parcel of Scoth Pedlars and their Moggies,
      Dancing a Highlanders Jig...1699, Edward Ward, The London Spy, volume I, page 15
    Synonyms:
    girl
  3. (Midlands, Northern England, derogatory, rare, regional) Synonym of slattern: an unkempt or badly-dressed woman.
    • Moggy, a slattern, dressed out untidily: 'She did look a moggy.'1886, Robert Eden George Cole, A Glossary of Words Used in South-west Lincolnshire, s.v. "moggy"
    • At Ickwell Green... the May Queen is accompanied by moggies (raggedly dressed women).1980, Automobile Association, Book of British Villages, page 263
    Synonyms:
    slattern
  4. (Midlands, Northern England, rare, regional) Synonym of scarecrow.
    Synonyms:
    scarecrow
  5. (Midlands, rare, regional) Synonym of calf.
    Synonyms:
    calf
  6. (East-Midlands, dated) A mouse.
  7. (Yorkshire) A kind of cake made with ginger, treacle, etc.

Adjective

moggy (comparative more moggy, superlative most moggy)

  1. (South Africa, Zimbabwe, slang) Irrational, out of touch
    • Yoh! I'm so gatvol of this tjoekie and need a zol to handle these moggy people.2025 March 26, Khanyisile Ngcobo, “'Yoh! You're in the OED' – South Africa makes its linguistic mark”, in BBC

Synonyms of moggy

Forms of moggy

Noun
pluralmoggies
alternative formmoggie
Adjective
comparativemore moggy
superlativemost moggy

Origin of moggy

Unknown, but probably originally Mog + -y, a Scots or Northern English variant of maggie (“girl”), from Maggie, a diminutive of Margaret and Margery. First attested in reference to mongrel cats in Cockney.

Derived from the Unimog, a brand of rugged four-wheel drive trucks popular in rural areas of South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Words formed from moggy

Phrases with moggy

Questions about moggy

What does moggy mean?
Moggy means a domestic cat, especially (depreciative or derogatory) a non-pedigree or unremarkable cat.
What part of speech is moggy?
Moggy can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce moggy?
Moggy is pronounced /ˈmɒ.ɡi/ (UK).
What is the plural of moggy?
The plural of moggy is moggies.

Words near moggy in the dictionary

  1. Moggridge
  2. Moggridges
  3. Moggs
  4. Moggs Creek
  5. Moggs Swamp
  6. moggy
  7. Mogh
  8. Moghadam
  9. Moghadams
  10. Moghaddam
  11. Moghaddams

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: moggy (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-moggy.ogg.

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