Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a thin poker used to facilitate the raking out of fireplaces.

1937–84

Partridge DSUE (1984) 866/2: ca. 1860–1930.

2. a one-legged person.

1824		Hatton Garden Public Ledger (London) 20 July 13/5: John Casey, nicknamed Peggy, from his wooden leg, a well known duffer.
1880		D.W. Barrett Life and Work Among Navvies 49: If a poor fellow has the misfortune to lose an eye, he gains the name of ‘Gunner;’ if he is short of a leg or an arm, ‘Peggy’ or Wingy’.
1897		St John’s Herald (AZ) 31 July 2/5: Engineer Rumbaugh is better known as ‘Peggy’ from the fact that he has an artificial limb.
1901		Stark Co. Democrat (Canton, OH) 18 Jan. 5/4: Many of the trainmen [...] call the old gentleman ‘Peggy’ because he has a wooden leg.
1916		Western Liberal (Lordsburg, NM) 4 Feb. 10/4: ‘Peggy’ the piano and trap drum player, returned [...] One of the pet squirrels [...] has been nesting in Pegy’s woioden leg.
1923		N. Anderson Hobo 102: Peggy is a one-legged man. Stumpy is a legless man. Wingy is a man with one or both arms off. Blinky is a man with one or both eyes defected. A Dummy is a man who is dumb or deaf and dumb.
1926		W.H. Davies Adventures of Johnny Walker 96: There was Peggy with his wooden leg.
1937		‘Boxcar Bertha’ Sister of the Road (1975) 301: Beggars [...] may be further sub-divided into groups: [...] f. Peggy (legless).
1943		Western Morn. News 13 Jan. 4/1: [Old] Exonians will recall ‘Peggy Wooden-leg,’ a city character who sold firewood from a donkey-cart.
2003		K. Cage Gayle 87/2: Peggy n. a gay man with an amputation.

3. a wooden leg, a peg-leg; one who has such a leg.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 866/2: C.20.

4. (Aus.) an unskilled worker who makes tea, sweeps up and takes on similar undemanding tasks [naut. jargon peggy, a ship’s mess-steward or menial; ult. peg-leg, a one-legged man who was often given such duties].

1963		L.F. Freed Crime in S. Afr. 106: A ‘peggy’ is a man with a gammy leg.
1971		J.P. Gilders Man Alone 44: ‘Who’d work on the railways for a lousy $36 a week. Only a poor bastard like me.’ ‘You’ve got it easy,’ Paul laughed. ‘You’re only the “peggy” aren’t you?’ [AND].
1979		(con. 1940s) G. Stewart Leveller 58: The ‘peggy’ (crew attendant), went amidship to draw our rations.
1986		Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Apr. 36/1 There are refrigerated water fountains [...] a subsidised canteen and a ‘peggy’, a man paid by the contractors to make the tea and organise the lunches in each of the crib huts.