Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 5.pdf/339

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pin; pipe; pot; side; spoke; strong; time-o'-day; tongue; war-paint; wrong-leg.


Putney. Go to Putney on a pig, phr. (common).—See quot., and cf. Bath, Halifax, Hong Kong, Jericho, &c.

1863. Kingsley, Austin Elliot, xv. Now, in the year 1845, telling a man to go to Putney, was the same as telling a man to go to the deuce.


Putrid, adj. (common).—A depreciative: cf. awful, bloody, &c.

1901. Sporting Times, 27 April, 1, 4. All beer is putrid, even when it's pure.


Putter, subs. (old).—A foot: see Creepers.

1821. Haggart, Life, 53. His ogles being darkened by the putter.


Putter-on, subs. phr. (old colloquial).—An instigator; a prompter.

1601. Shakspeare, Henry VIII., i. 2, 24. They vent reproaches Most bitterly on you, as putter-on Of these exactions. Ibid. (1604), Winter's Tale, ii. 1, 140. You are abus'd, and by some putter-on That will be damn'd for it.


Puttock, subs. (old).—1. A whore: see Tart.


Putty, subs. (American).—Money: generic: see Rhino.

1848. Durivage, Stray Subjects, 82. 'I'll take that lot.' 'You will?' 'Yes, Mister; and yere's yer putty!'

2. (common).—A glazier or painter.

The putty and plaster on the Solomon knob, phr. (masons').—An intimation that the Master is coming; 'be silent!'


Puzzle (or Dirty-puzzle), subs. (old).—A slattern.

1583. Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses [Nares]. Nor yet any droyle or puzzel . . . but will carry a nosegay in her hand.

1592. Shakspeare, 1 Henry VI., i. 4. Pucelle or puzzel, dolphin or dog fish.

1607. Stephanus, Apol. for Herod., 98. Some filthy queans, especially our puzzles of Paris.


Puzzle-cove (or cause), subs. (old).—A lawyer.—Grose (1785); Matsell (1859).


Puzzledom, subs. (old colloquial).—Perplexity; bewilderment: also puzzlement. Whence, puzzleheaded and puzzleheadedness.

1748. Richardson, Harlowe, vi. 367. I was resolved to travel with him unto the land of puzzledom.

1881. Freeman, Venice, 79. The wonderful interior of the double basilica opens upon us. The first feeling is simply puzzledom.


Puzzle-headed-spoon. See Apostle-spoon.


Puzzle-text, subs. phr. (old).—A clergyman: see Sky-pilot.—Grose (1785).


Puzzling arithmetic, subs. phr. (old gamblers').—A statement of the odds.

1613. Webster, Devil's Law-case, ii. 1. Studying a puzzling arithmetic at the cockpit.


Puzzling-sticks, subs. phr. (old).—The triangle to which culprits were tied for flagellation.—Vaux (1819).


Pygostole, subs. (clerical).—A M.B. waistcoat (q.v.).

1844. Puck, 13. It is true that the wicked make sport Of our pygostoles, as we go by.

1886. Graphic, 10 April, 39. The M.B. coat, otherwise known as a pygostole.