Green’s Dictionary of Slang

stupid.

1836		T. Hook Gilbert Gurney 115: Dr. Cauliflower, the putty-headed physician .
1847		Bucks Herald 29 May 3/4: You [...] pining, lolling, screwed-up, wasp-waisted, doll-dressed, putty-faced [...] daughters.
1853		Yazoo City Wkly Whig (MS) 14 Oct. 2/2: ‘Putty Heads’ is added to the political nomenclature of New York.
1869		Carson Dly Appeal (MV) 15 July 2/1: It may yet succeed if [...] putty-headed, faint-hearted, weak Union men continue to quail before bluster and blarny.
1875		Sheffield Dly Teleg. 3 Apr. 9/3: Sir Arthur Turner, Bart. A putty-nosed blaguad [sic].
1876		Manchester Courier 20 Sept. 3/3: In swaggered the round-shouldered, putty-faced giant.
1878		Sedalia Wkly Bazoo (MO) 17 Dec. 1/4: A pastor sufficiently putty-headed to be pleased with this sort of worship.
1885		Thomas Co. Cat. (Colby, KS) 9 Apr. 3/2: There was one putty-faced dude who wasn’t reading.
1886		Sun (NY) 6 Sept. 2/3: Mr James [...] may win for him the admiration of a few putty-headed prigs.
1889		Homer Guardian (LA) 31 May 1/5: That putty-brained idiot that runs a lying sheet.
1893		Sun (NY) 29 May 6/2: The cranks, the sentimentalists [...] the great army of putty-headed reformers.
1894		G. du Maurier Trilby 106: Their stupid, big, fat, tow-headed, putty-nosed husbands will be mad with jealousy.
1896		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 11 May 7/2: The hump-backed, putty-faced vermin.
1897		Sun (NY) 7 Jan. 7/1: You putty-brained galoot.
1900		Sun (NY) 1 May 6/2: The new generation is putty-headed in the matter of party management.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Sept. 25/2: ‘Who married you?’ / ‘That’ll do, Sue! A she-devil; a maniac; a putty-faced fool who didn’t know enough to come in out of the wet. In short, Sue, I’ve been a damned fool.’.
1906		Salt Lake Herald (UT) 7 Oct. 30/2: You putty-headed idiot!
1910		‘O. Henry’ ‘Compliments of the Season’ in Strictly Business (1915) 202: You are a pack of putty-faced beagle-hounds.
1916		Eve. Public Ledger (Phila., PA) 2 June 11/5: Frizzle-headed females and putty-brained males gaze with eyes and mouths wide open.
1916		Burlington Wkly Free Press 25 May 9/2: A striking exhibition on the part of a putty-headed Massachusetts jury.
1917		Sun (Price, UT) 9 Nov. 4/2: The West is not entirely a region of farm lands, as many putty-faced Easterners suppose.
1922		St John’s Herald (Apache Co., AZ) 5 Jan. 3/1: I might have married [...] if I’d been willin’ to grubstake some shiftless, putty-faced monkey like yerself.
1929		R. McAlmon ‘Potato Picking’ in Knoll McAlmon and the Lost Generation (1976) 34: Ellsworth was a putty-nosed mamma’s boy.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Rev. 22 Aug. 4: Putty-brained money addicts, or sex-and-substance-abusing CJD victims.

(UK Und.) an unreliable person.

1823

Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Putty Cove, or Covess A man or woman upon whom no dependence can be placed; i.e. they are as liable [sic] as putty , which can be bent any way.

(US) weak, ineffectual.

1861		Dly Intelligencer (Wheeling, VA) 24 Jan. 1/5: Let them beware of those putty-eyed [...] meal-mouthed, chicken-hearted doughfaces.
1916		E. Wallace Nobby [ebook] If I ever hear you talkin’ about stayin’ behind to wash up the cups, I'll knock bits off you, you putty-eyed blitherer.
1992		A. Tyler Saint Maybe 175: When Agatha came downstairs she looked putty-eyed and dazed.
2003		T. Howard Secrets of N.Y. Revealed 30: Putty-eyed men and their besequined, be-coiffed women.
2015		G.M. Thomas Sagus 5 [ebook] A poem that would evoke memories of a missed England for [...] a putty-eyed, sentimental ex-pat.

(US) a fool.

1856		M.J. Holmes ’Lena Rivers (1878) 306: He got so engaged about the darned ‘liquor law,’ and the putty-heads that made it, that he’d no idee ’twas so late.
1864		J.T. Trowbridge Cudjo’s Cave 399: We must fight it through, or go back, like that putty-head Deslow.
1872		Wichita City Eagle (KS) 19 Apr. 2/5: The smart (?) people of Wellington [...] hid the basswood puttyhead acting as district clerk and then climbed their libertypole and crowed.
1874		Fife Herald 5 Nov. 4/2: That little, soft, putty-head doughbake [...] she ain’t good enough for a Thornton.
1881		Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 29 Jan. 2/2: Better to be defeated with such men, than victorious with putty-heads.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Mar. 10/4: Folks ask – ‘Why, can the ass be sane?’ / And talk of thee as ‘putty-brain’.
1892		Journal of Amer. Folklore V 145: Putty-head.—A term of reproach. Soft head, stupid [DA].
1893		Dly Gaz. for Middlesborough 10 Apr. 4/5: He got so engaged about the darned ‘liquor law’ and the putty-heads that made it.
1905		‘Central Connecticut Word-List’ in DN III:i 16: putty-head, n. A fool.
1915		M.G. Hayden ‘Terms Of Disparagement’ in DN IV:iii 206: putty-head, a fool. ‘That putty-head never does anything.’.
1954		Oh Boy! No. 20 14: Yes, Folks, he’s at it again! Putty-head, the character who reads so many comics about big tough supermen.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 201: He is [...] a pea-brain, or a putty-brain.

a fig. award given to someone who has botched a job or in some other way failed to do what is required.

1867		Press Cuttings &c. relating to the bread riots in Oxford n.p.: Notice is hereby given : — I. That, since the departure of the Military, any worthy Alderman or M.P. over 60 years of age, seen in the public streets with a white band round his arm, be presented with a putty medal, and sent quietly home.
1871		Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. 73: Let your conduct be a shade better than it has heen, and ,you will earn our praise, and the nation will reward your services with a putty medal.
1884		Salisbury Times 1 Nov. 7/4: Among schoolboys it is the custom to promise a putty medal [...] for doughty service.
1894		Beds. Times 17 Nov. 6/2: He suggested that a ‘putty-medal’ would be a suitable reward.
1908		Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Dec. 40/2: That weren’t a bad spec [...]. Ole Jerry deserves a putty medal. I didn’t think ’e ’ad it in ’im. Fifty-five quid! We’re made for life!
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 204/1: Putty-medal (Peoples’, 1856). No medal at all. Satirical recommendation to reward for mischief or injury. A tailor makes a misfit; e.g., ‘Give him a putty medal.’.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 23 Oct. 5/2: Dipper kids himself now that he has a medal. Is it leather or putty, Dip?

a homosexual man.

2002

The-House-of-Love.org ‘Gay Men Names’ 🌐 pussyboy • putty pusher.

(Aus.) worthless, ineffectual.

1912		Sydney Morn. Herald 7 Sept. 12/2: Our first appearance on the Thames drew forth much adverse criticism. It was said we were about ‘up to Putty’.
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 6 June 2/4: These legal blokes ain’t up to ‘putt’.
1915		C.E.W. Bean Anzac Book 32/1: A man’s got a chance to hit back there [i.e. the trenches], but down ’ere it’s up to putty. It’s bad enough to be eatin’ bully beef, but carryin’ it as well is rotten.
1916		Private H.E. Broun (19 Bn. AIF) 4 June War Diary 🌐 Bombarded again this morning. Fritz up to putty. One shell hit our parapet. Did not burst.
1918		Kia Ora Coo-ee 15 May 5/2: I […] offered the fair charmer a cigarette. She took it, with the remark, that issue fags were up to putty.
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘The Also-Ran’ Rose of Spadgers 107: You’re up to putty; an’ yeh’ve lost the game.
1939		A. Turner After Three [radio script] I jerried Donaldson had been putting it over the other John I was full, and that me evidence was up to putty.
1940		E. Curry Hysterical Hist. of Aus. 35: Not so hot, up to putty.
1965		R.H. Conquest Horses in Kitchen 49: ‘How’s Bendigo now, mate?’ ‘Aw, up to putty.’.
1972		G.W. Turner Eng. Lang. in Aus. and N.Z. 108: Some slang seems to be better known in New South Wales [...] not up to putty ‘not up to much’.
1999		posting at Dept of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (Aus.) 🌐 I had a beaut result with a lady who couldn’t read her kitchen scales so her cooking was ‘up to putty’.