or public, subs. (colloquial).—A tavern; IN THE PUBLIC LINE = engaged as a licensed victualler.
1816. SCOTT, Old Mortality, xli. ‘This woman keeps an inn, then?’ interrupted Morton. ‘A PUBLIC, in a puir way,’ replied Blane.
1840. BULWER-LYTTON, Paul Clifford, xxii. Ascertaining the topography of the PUBLIC at which he spake.
1866. G. ELIOT, Felix Holt, xxviii. The Cross-Keys was a very old-fashioned PUBLIC.
1874. BEETON, The Siliad, 16. All the great houses and the minor PUBS. Ibid. Peelers … watch PUBLICS with a jealous eye.
1883. PAYN, Thicker than Water, xxxv. One doesn’t expect to see … the inevitable hanger-on of PUBS outside, waiting for a job.
1884. Good Words, xxv. June, p. 400, col. 1. He had done twelve months [in prison] for crippling for life the ‘chucker-out’ of one of these PUBS, and two years for a nearly successful attempt to ‘corpse’ a policeman. [M.]
1885. Daily Telegraph, 31 Oct. The difficulty will be to persuade him to come out of the domestic paradise into a world without PUBS.
1886–7. MARSHALL, ‘Pomes’ from the Pink ’Un [It’s a Sad Heart that never Rejoices’], 76. The bloke at the PUB.
1887. W. E. HENLEY, Villon’s Good-Night, i. You spunges miking round the PUBS.
1893. MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, 3, ‘On the ’Oliday Season.’ No PUB but a sand-parlour’d shanty devoted to sing-song and swipes.
1899. R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, vii. Waiting for the opening of the PUBS.
