mugging

mug it up

To make silly or exaggerated facial expressions, especially when being filmed or photographed. I wish you wouldn't mug it up like that every single time I try to take your picture. I just want one photo where everyone is smiling nicely! She really stole the show, mugging it up for the camera in every scene she was in.
See also: mug, up

mug off

1. slang To treat someone like or make someone seem like a fool. You're just mugging me off now! They're just kids trying to mug you off. Don't pay them no mind.
2. slang To treat someone in a disrespectful or contemptuous manner. She claims the other contestant mugged her off in front of her teammates as a means of creating drama and tension within the show. It just feels like the band is mugging their fans off, charging so much for a concert ticket and then giving such a horrible performance like that.
3. slang To cheat, swindle, or con someone. I had a feeling the solicitor was mugging us off. Over 10,000 customers have been mugged off by the fraudulent investment firm.
See also: mug, off

mug up

1. To study through intense rote memorization. Primarily heard in UK. The professor always tells his students not to mug up ahead of exams. I mugged up my whole way through college, but now I can hardly remember anything I learned.
2. To memorize something. In this usage, a noun or pronoun can be used between "mug" and "up." Primarily heard in UK. We all mugged the lines up and recited them like parrots, without ever really thinking about what they meant. I'd rather help my students learn how the language is actually used, rather than pressuring them to mug up the precise grammatical rules and terms.
See also: mug, up
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • mug it up
  • mug up
  • pull faces (at someone)
  • make faces
  • make faces (at someone)
  • my face when
  • my reaction when
  • MFW
  • MRW
  • pull/make faces/a face
References in periodicals archive
The rampant muggings ignited a fierce crackdown and eventual banning of bodabodas from within the CBD.
Sonko later claimed the youths involved in the muggings had been hired by his political rivals to portray him as a failure.
Police warn of return of daytime muggers in Nairobi
In Model Mugging courses, women first discuss what defense mechanisms they've relied on throughout their lives, where those came from and how they have become outdated.
For many women Model Mugging may be the first time they're confronted with the issue of empowerment--taking responsibility for their own safety by telling someone to leave them alone or physically striking out.
Model Mugging is designed to retrain women--to break through the psychological barriers preventing them from saving themselves.
One of the typical questions asked in Model Mugging classes and demonstrations is, "How real are the muggings?" Although the attacks are stylized to simulate what women experience in real attacks, they aren't realistic per se.
"Many perpetrators are not skilled fighters, and the way the women fight is totally unexpected." One woman reported she was attacked in the subway eight years after she took Model Mugging. She remembered nothing of the assault, but her assailant had been knocked unconscious.
Hear me roar: "Model Mugging" self-defense courses teach women to fight back under attack and win
BEIRUT: Friday police reports were topped by two muggings and two break-ins.
Muggings and break-ins reported across Lebanon
BEIRUT: Several muggings were reported in Greater Beirut Friday, as police arrested two men for the same crime.
A Syrian worker who lost cash and ID cards, and a woman in her car, were also victims of muggings in the suburbs by two-men gangs.
Separately, two men were arrested near the airport road on suspicion of using a service van to carry out a series of muggings.
Muggings reported, police arrest 2 men for same crime