1858. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, 11. xii. 184. He was known by his brother pugs to be one of the gamest hands in the ring.
1882. "Thormanby," Famous Racing Men, 75. John Gully . . . retired from the Ring, and like most of his brother pugs, took a public-house.
1887. Henley, Villon's Good-Night, 2. You bleeding bonnets, pugs, and subs.
1888. Referee, 21 Oct. The sporting papers always kept the pugs in their proper place, and scarcely contemplated they would have to do lip and lackey service to them.
1891. Lic. Vict. Gaz., 20 Mar. A posse of pugs guarded the course.
4. (domestics').—An upper servant: hence PUG's-hole = the housekeeper's room.—Halliwell (1847).
5. A dog: with no reference to breed.
6. (sporting).—A fox.
1809. Edgeworth, Absentee, vii. There is a dead silence till pug is well out of cover.
1849. Kingsley, Yeast, i. Some well-known haunts of pug.
Puggard, subs. (old).—A thief:
hence pugging = thievish.
1604. Shakspeare, Winter's Tale, iv. 2. The white sheet bleaching on a hedge . . . Doth set my pugging tooth an edge.
1611. Middleton, Roaring Girl [Dodsley, Old Plays (Reed), vi. 115]. Lifters, nips, foists, puggards.
Puke, subs. (American).—1. A
term of contempt: cf. puker
(Shrewsbury) = a good-for-nothing.
1847. Robb, Squatter Life, 152. Captain and all hands are a set of cowardly PUKES.
2. (American).—An inhabitant of the State of Missouri (Century Dict.).
Verb. (old).—To vomit: still in use at Winchester.—B.E. (c.1696).
1600. Shakspeare, As You Like It, ii. 7. The infant Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
1734. Pope, Satires of Donne, iv. 153. As one of Woodwards patients, sick and sore, I puke.
1893. Milliken, 'Arry Ballads, 78. People puke at the shams till they think the originals ain't no great shakes.
Puling, adj. and adv. (old: now
recognised).—Sickly: hence
puler = a weakling.—B.E.
(c.1696).
1608. Yorkshire Tragedy, i. 1. My young mistress keeps such a puling for a lover.
1609. Man in the Moone, Sig. G. If she be pale of complexion, she will prove but a puler; is she high coloured, an ill cognizance.
c.1617. Fletcher and others, Knight of Malta, ii. 3. Come . . . put this puling passion out of your mind.
1820. Lamb, New Year's Eve [Gibbings, Works, iii. 181]. Where be those puling fears of death?
Pull, subs. (old and still colloquial).—1.
A drink; a GO (q.v.):
as verb. = to drink; TO LUSH
(q.v.). Puller-on = an appetiser:
of liquids only: cf.
DRAWER-ON.
1436. Political Songs ['Master of the Rolls,' ii. 169]. [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 249. The verb pulle takes the sense of bibere].
1469. Coventry Myst. [Halliwell], 142. I pulle 00 draught.
1600. Decker, Sho. Holiday [Works (1873), i. 22]. O heele give a villanous pull at a can of double beere.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, lvi. The vessel being produced, I bade him decant his bottle into it . . . and said, "Pledge you." He stared . . . "What! all at one pull, measter Randan?"
