Presenterer, subs. (old).—A whore: see Tart.
Preserve, subs. (old University).—A
collection of outstanding
bills.—Grose (1785).
Press, subs. (American sporting).—A
winning bet added to the
original stake.
Prettify, verb. (colloquial).—To
adorn; to decorate. Whence
prettification = the process of
adornment; prettified = the
fact (or condition) of being
adorned.
Pretty, subs. (venery).—The female
pudendum: also pretty-pretty:
see Monosyllable.
Pretty dear = a mistress.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas [Routledge], 372. Who pamper up their pretty dears.
Adj. and adv. (literary and colloquial).—A generic intensive: ironical or complimentary at occasion or will: see quot. 1814.
c.1500. How a Sergeaunt, &c. [Hazlitt], Early Pop. Poet, iii. 122]. First faire and wele a pretie deale, he hyd it in a potte.
1530 Palsgrave, Langue Fran., 453. A preaty whyle ago, ung peu de temps passe.
1537-40. Supp. of Monasteries [Camden Soc.], 198. Praty besynes [of some monkish crimes].
1550. Udal, Roister Doister [Arber], 37. My pretty maid [an ironical address by a mistress to a servant].
15[?]. Political Poems [Furnivall], 244. A bok hym is browt Naylyd on a brede of tre, That men callyt an abece, Pratylych I-wrout.
1594. Shakspeare, Lucreece, 1233. A pretty while these pretty creatures stand.
1596. Jonson, Ev. Man in His Humour, i. 2. Know. Is the fellow gone that brought this letter? Brai. Yes, sir, a pretty while since.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 1. 6. It is a pretty way distant from the town.
1628. Earle, Micro-cosmog, 'A Weake Man.' A great affecter of wits and such pretinesses.
1630. Capt. John Smith, True Travels, 1. 26. Meldritch . . . was advised of a pretty stratagem by the English Smith.
d.1657. Bradford, Plymouth Plantation, 235. Aboute some 3. or 4. years before this time ther came over one Captaine Wolastone (a man of pretie parts).
1678. Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, 208. You are pretty near the business.
1714. Lucas, Gamesters, 143. He . . . being no bad player won a pretty deal of money.
1726. Vanbrugh, Provoked Husband, ii. 1. A pretty sort of a young woman.
1763. Foote, Mayor of Garratt, i. 1. I believe things are pretty secure. Ibid. 'A pretty son you have provided' . . . 'I hope all for the best.'
1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 96. You then will find, tho' now you pish on't You've made a pretty kettle of fish on't.
d.1774. Goldsmith, Reverie at Boar's-Head Tavern [Century]. The gallants of these times pretty much resembled the bloods of ours.
1814. Scott, Waverley, xvii. He even mentioned the number of recruits . . . and observed that they were pretty men, meaning not handsome, but stout warlike fellows.
1777. Sheridan, School for Scandal, i. 1. Egad! ma'am, he has a pretty wit, and is a pretty poet too. Ibid. (1778), The Rivals, iv. 3. The quarrel is a very pretty quarrel as it stands.
1870. Hawthorne, Eng. Note Books, ii. 306. Suburban villas, Belgrave terraces, And other such prettinesses.
1874. J. A. Symonds, Italy and Greece, 76. The painter . . . was forced . . . to perpetuate pious prettinesses long after he had ceased to feel them.
1891. Stevenson, Kidnapped, 73. "There are some pretty men gone to the bottom."
