Hello,
I would like to know your opinion about these two words: Rob and Mug
Is there any difference between them?
According to the dictonary, "Rob" implies the use of violence; but when defining "Mug" we see the word "attack" in the definition which also implies violence.
In common use of these words, do you feel that there are differences between them?
Thank you.
ONLY A NON-TEACHER'S OPINION
(1) Great question. I, too, want to see what others say.
(2) Two of my dictionaries define "mug" as to attack with the intention to rob.
(3) One day I was walking down the street at lunch time. Two prostitutes were
coming toward me. I tried to walk past them, but one of them blocked my way and
said "Give me the money in your pocket." I said nothing and continued to walk. She
then hit me in the head. Fortunately, her "colleague" yelled "Leave that man alone!"
(a) I was not actually robbed, but I think it fair to say that I was mugged.
In a robbery, the "victim" can be a person or a place. "The school was robbed of all its computers." In a mugging, the event usually takes place outdoors or in a public place. "He was mugged on his way home from the supermarket. They took his groceries and all his money." A mugging usually includes a robbery, but a robbery is not always a mugging.
Resisting the temptation to answer along the lines of "you can't put tea or coffee in a rob", I would suggest that mugging starts with an attack, hoping to make the actually robbery easier.
There does not have to be violence for it to be a mugging--just the threat of violence. If someone pulls a gun or knife on me and demands my purse, he never has to touch me but I have still been mugged.
I'm not a teacher, but I write for a living. Please don't ask me about 2nd conditionals, but I'm a safe bet for what reads well in (American) English.
One more for the vocabulary books - recognized recently by the OED: "chugger". This is someone who accosts people in public places and signs them up to make a regular charity donation. There's no violence, though they can be insistent in a way that some people would regard as impolite.
b