mugwump
Syllables: mug·wump/ˈmʌɡwʌmp/US/ˈmʌɡˌwʌmp/
mugwump noun: a (male) leader; an important (male) person.
Noun (1)
mugwump (plural mugwumps)
- A (male) leader; an important (male) person.
- Synonyms:
- baron, big cheese, big enchilada, big gun, big kahuna, big man, big name, big noise, big shot, bigwig
- Antonyms:
- absolute zero, also-ran, chopped liver, cipher, crumb, Joe Nobody, little guy, minnow, nebbish, nobody
- A member of the Republican Party who declined to support the party's nominee James G. Blaine (1830–1893) during the 1884 United States presidential election, believing him to be corrupt, and instead supported the Democratic Party's candidate Grover Cleveland (1837–1908).
- A person who purports to stay aloof from party politics.
- The story of the capture of Vicksburg is the old, old story of failure turned into success, by which man is made immortal. It involves the history of a general who never retraced his steps, who cared neither for mugwump murmurs nor political cabals, who took both blame and praise with equanimity.1901 May, Winston Churchill, “A Strange Meeting”, in The Crisis, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, book III, page 427
- After them came the politician, who said there was only one purpose in Nature, and that was to get him into parliament. I told him I did not care whether he got into parliament or not; so he called me Mugwump and went his way.1901–1903, [George] Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman. […], Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable & Co., published 1903, →OCLC, Act III, page 116
- One who switches from supporting one political party to another, especially for personal benefit.
- A person who stays neutral or non-committal; a fence sitter; also, a person who maintains an aloof and often self-important demeanour.
- Anthea hasn't a notion in her head but to vamp a lot of silly mugwumps. She's set her heart on that tennis bloke [...] whom the papers are making such a fuss about.1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court: A McLean Mystery, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC
- A foolish person.
- ‘I very much doubt whether they’ll be able to make this pot-walloping mugwump of an Abbot understand their wire-drawn deductions,’ said Silvander Dan.1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 43
Verb
mugwump (third-person singular simple present mugwumps, present participle mugwumping, simple past and past participle mugwumped)
- To behave like a mugwump.
- To purport to stay aloof and independent, especially from party politics.
Noun (2) capitalized: Mugwump
Mugwump (plural Mugwumps)
- Alternative letter-case form of mugwump.
Synonyms of mugwump
29 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- big wheel
- boss
- grand poobah
- head honcho
- heavy hitter
- heavyweight
- high muckamuck
- high muckety-muck
- king of all one surveys
- king of the castle
- king of the hill
- kingpin
- macher
- mayor
- muckamuck
- muckety muck
- numero uno
- panjandrum
- poobah
- rooster
- somebody
- top banana
- top boy
- top cat
- top dog
- top gun
- very important person
- VIP
- wheel
Antonyms
10 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of mugwump
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | mugwumps |
| plural | Mugwumps |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | mugwumps |
| present participle | mugwumping |
| past participle | mugwumped |
| past | mugwumped |
Origin of mugwump
The noun is borrowed from Massachusett mugquomp, mummugquomp (“war leader”). Folk etymology reinterpreted it as referring to a person who sat on the fence with their mug (“face”) on one side and wump (“rump”) on the other, which influenced political cartoons during the 1884 United States presidential election. The verb is derived from the noun.
Words formed from mugwump
Questions about mugwump
- What does mugwump mean?
- Mugwump means a (male) leader; an important (male) person.
- What part of speech is mugwump?
- Mugwump can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce mugwump?
- Mugwump is pronounced /ˈmʌɡwʌmp/ (UK).
- What is the plural of mugwump?
- The plural of mugwump is mugwumps.
Words near mugwump in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mugwump (page history and authors); Mugwump (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-mugwump.wav.
Cite this entry: “mugwump.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mugwump. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.