subs. (old).—1. An endearment; and (2) a whore.
1567. T. DRANT, Horace, II. iii. Call it PUGGES and pretye peate.
1602. MARSTON, Antonio and Mellida, ii. 1. Good PUG, give me some capon.
1607. DEKKER and WEBSTER, Westward Hoe, ii. 2. The lob has his lass … the western-man his PUG, the serving-man his punk … the puritan his sister.
1611. COTGRAVE, Dictionarie, s.v. Gouge. A Souldier’s PUG or punke, a wh—— that followes the camp.
1660. HOWELL, Lexicon Tetraglotton. My pretty PUG; Ma belle, m’ amie.
1653. URQUHART, Rabelais, I. iii. A jolly PUG, and well-mouthed wench.
1678. DRYDEN, Limberham; or, the Kind Keeper, Epilogue, 18.
| In all the boys their fathers virtues shine, | |
| But all the female fry turn PUGS like mine. |
3. (pugilists’).—A pugilist: also PUGIL (old). Hence PUG’S-ACRE = a corner of Highgate cemetery where Tom Sayers and other pugilists lie buried.
1692. J. HACKET, Life of Archbishop Williams, i. 37. He was no little one, but saginati corporis bellua, as Curtius says of Dioxippus the PUGIL.
1858. A. MAYHEW, Paved with Gold, II. 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. W. E. 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. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 20 March. 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, The Absentee, vii. There is a dead silence till PUG is well out of cover.
1848. C. KINGSLEY, Yeast, i. Some well-known haunts of PUG.
