Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. genuine, correct, honest.

1776		Trial of Maha Rajah Nundocomar (Bengal) 102/1: Maha Rajah said it was necessary to witness it to make it pukka; and they said so too, and signed it.
1854		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Jan. 15/1: The Committee is a composed a a very ‘pucca’ (i.e. strict) Captain [...] and two Members.
1858		Col. K. Young in Delhi 1857 (1902) Appendix D. 329: On receiving pucka information [...] that the Insurgents were at Singpore and making arrangements to march that night on us.
1861		Times of India 25 May 2/7: The number of houses in the town is estimated at 510, of which 283 are regular pucka buildings.
1863		Times of India 18 Apr. 2/3: The arrangement, too, manifests a taste it may be doubted if any pukka ‘merchant’ in India would be found to posess.
1870		Times of India 25 May 2/6: Now that his appointment is pucka, the Chief Commissioner will no doubt resume work with fresh vigour.
1871		Times of India 19 July 2/5: [T]his is the season of the year in which least hindrance to public business is caused by the absence of a pukka Commissioner.
1879		G. Aberigh-Mackay Twenty-one Days in India n.p.: The junior member of the Board of Revenue, or even the Commissioner of a division (if he is pucca) may question [etc].
1881		Times of India 25 Mar. 2/5: Since my last we have been having pucka monsoon weather, apparently too quite the correct thing for Afghanistan.
1886		Dundee Courier 9 June 2/6: The authorities would seem to have had a difficulty in finding what Anglo-Indians would call a ‘pukka’ Highlander.
1891		Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 14 May 3/3: ‘Yes, sir, I am a pucka ticket-collector [...] and I hope to be pucka Guard when I return to duty.
1899		Kipling ‘Slaves of the Lamp — Pt II’ in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 293: The bearer of this is in charge of seventy-five recruits, all pukka devils, but desirous of leading new lives.
1904		Kipling ‘The Comprehension of Private Copper’ in Traffics and Discoveries 168: ‘You ain’t ’alf-caste, but you talk chee-chee—pukka bazar chee-chee.’.
1906		Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 22 June 4/2: The one pukka Major, that is the 2nd-in-command, probably has less to complain about thin any other of the commissioned ranks.
1912		P.C. Wren Dew & Mildew 78: ‘We’ll have a pukka millingtary funeral like they gave the voUingteer at Karabad’.
1917		B.E.F. Times 15 Aug. (2006) 208/2: Here a pucker bunch of Red Bands met us.
1919		J. Buchan Mr Standfast (1930) 545: My boy’s at home, convalescing, and if he says you’re pukka I’ll ask your pardon and give you a dashed good bottle of port.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 100: I suppose that it is pukka that we stay here two nights, is it?
1933		M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 266: I climb up an outside stair to what I discover is a pukka howff, or padding ken.
1947		Powell & Pressburger Black Narcissus [film script] And now the old place is a pukka convent.
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 73: ‘The bloody gun’s not even loaded!’ Stringy was not to be caught so easy. He squeezed the trigger. It was pukka enough.
1985		J. Sherwood Botanist at Bay 175: It turns out he’s pukka Graeco-Roman.
1998		J. Hoskison Inside 62: You swap the crap for a bit of pucker ‘tom’.
1999		Guardian Guide 5–12 June 30: Acid House got to Jeeves jargon first with ‘pukka’, a word still used by estate agents and ageing DJs.
2000		Guardian Rev. 22 Jan. 9: The one I send home comes out a pukka Englishman.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 251: Compared to a hundred per cent of all witnesses questioned, I have to say Ms Strong is absolutely pukka. Prescise, consistent [...] detailed and articulate.

2. the best, the highest class.

1875		‘Aliph Cheem’ Lays of Ind (1905) 187: You may be proud and pucka in position, / Collector, or a General of Brigade.
1894		Worcs Chron. 3 Nov. 2/4: In country districts [...] ‘pukka’ railways, as an old Indian would say, cannot be made to pay.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 342: He gets honin’ fur comp’ny, an’ when Ben come along it’s puck-a-chee fur him.
1912		Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 9 Apr. 10/1: [T]he development of communicatons in India has been greatly hampered by insistence on a very high standard. As an eminent railway engineer put it, we are inclined to be too frightfully pukka.
1919		‘Sax Rohmer’ Dope 137: ‘You gotchee pukka stuff thisee time, George?’ ‘I allus brings the pukka stuff!’ roared the seaman, [...] ‘Wotcher mean—pukka stuff?’.
1931		(con. 1918) E.W. Springs Rise and Fall of Carol Banks 48: He had apparently been well crashed [...] He was a pukka write-off.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 122: He is an old Etonian and a pukka Sahib.
1983		J. Sullivan ‘Yesterday Never Comes’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Real pukka establishment Rodney, I mean, you know, real pukka. Sort of place royals go.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Rev. 25 July 53: Teaching incognito at a pukka boys’ school.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 359: The desert’s fuckin pukka too.
2007		N. ‘Razor’ Smith Raiders 84: This was a pukka deal and so many [...] cons volunteered.
2010		K. Richards Life 188: He was very pukka, an ex-Commodore of the Royal Navy.