1760. Foote, Minor, i. Mrs. Cole. I won't trouble you for the glass; my hands do so tremble and shake, I shall but spill the good creature. Lead. Well pulled.
1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 246. When my landlord does not nick me . . . But very fairly fills it full, I just can swigg it at one pull.
1820. The Fancy. We'll pull a little deady.
1825. Scott, Talisman, xxvi. Wash it down with a brimming flagon, man, or thou wilt choke upon it.—Why so—well pulled!
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, lii. Taking a long and hearty pull at the rum-and-water.
1857. Trollope, Three Clerks, xlv. A deep pull at the pewter.
1868. Whyte-Melville, White Rose, 11. ii. The other . . . sucked in a long pull of his hot coffee.
1888. Century Mag., xxxviii. After a long pull at the pitcher of persimmon beer.
1891. Newman, Scamping Tricks, 49. I went straight away and had a pull of rum.
2. (colloquial).—An advantage; a hold; power: e.g., to have a pull over one = to have at an advantage, in one's power, or under one's thumb.—Grose (1785); Vaux (1819).
c. 1500. Medwall, Interlude of Nature, sig. C ii. It cost me a noble . . . The scald capper sware, That yt cost hym euen as myche But there Pryde had a pull.
1783. Burgoyne, Lord of the Manor, iii. 1. You'll have quite the pull of me in employment.
1821. Egan, Life in London, 11. ii. [The watchmen,] besides having the pull in their favour, in opening the charge, and colouring it as they think proper. . . .
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, xli. They know . . . who naturally have the pull over them.
1856. Hughes, Tom Brown's School-Days, 1. vii. What a pull, said he, that it's lie-in-bed, for I shall be as lame as a tree, I think.
1868. Whyte-Melville, White Rose, 11. 24. It's a great pull not having married young.
1885. D. Telegraph, 21 Dec. The pull in the weights alone enabled Ivanhoe to win by a length.
1886-96. Marshall, 'Pomes' ['Her Sunday Clothes'], 105. She'd also a pull o'er those well-dressed elves.
1888. Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, xxiii. We had twice the pull now, because so many strangers, that couldn't possibly be known to the police, were straggling over all the roads.
1892. Half-Holiday, 19 Mar., 91, 2. I had all the advantage of having a better case than he. I had that pull on him.
1892. Gunter, Miss Dividends, xi. Don't this give the Church a pull upon the daddy?
3. (old).—See quot.
1819. Vaux, Memoirs, s.v. Pull . . . A person speaking of any intricate affair, or feat of ingenuity, which he cannot comprehend, will say, There is some pull at the bottom of it, that I'm not fly to.
4. (common).—An attempt to extort something from another; a go (q.v.).
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas [Routledge], 74. Relations and strangers were all for having a pull at him.
5. (colloquial).—Rowing exercise: also as verb. = to row.
1841. Hook, Fathers and Sons, xvii. To pull Lady Cramly and her daughters down the river.
Verb. 1. See subs. 1.
2. (cricketers').—To strike a ball from the 'off' to the 'leg' side of the wicket. To take a pull = to drive a straight ball.
3. (thieves').—To arrest; to raid: see Nab and Cop. Whence pulled up = brought before a magistrate.—Grose (1785).
