Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) influence, advantage.

c.1500		Medwall Interlude of Nature sig. C. ii: It cost me a noble... The scald capper sware, That yt cost hym euen as myche But there Pryde had a pull [F&H].
1781		J. Burgoyne Lord of Manor III i: You’ll have quite the pull of me in employment.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: pull having the advantage over another.
c.1800		‘Drunk in the Night’ No. 26 Papers of Francis Place (1819) n.p.: It was my intention, to have a pull on them without more delay / So without further trouble I tip’d them the double.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 259: pull An important advantage possessed by one party over another; as in gaming, you may by some slight, unknown to your adversary, or by a knowledge of the cards, &c., have the odds of winning considerably on your side; you are then said to have a great pull. To have the power of injuring a person, by the knowledge of any thing erroneous in his conduct, which leaves his character or personal safety at your mercy, is also termed having a pull upon him, that is (to use a vulgar phrase) that you have him under your thumb.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 227: [The Watchmen] besides having the pull in their favour, in opening the charge, and colouring it as they think proper .
1828		‘A Flat Enlightened’ Life in the West I 152: [of card-playing] ‘The fairest game played, on which there can be no pull, is this’ [etc].
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1841		‘F.L.G’ Swell’s Night Guide K4: Pull, having an advantage.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 14 May n.p.: Main science being the only pull at the game [i.e. billiards].
1857		T. Hughes Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 118: What a pull [...] that’s it’s lie-in-bed.
1865		M.L. Byrn Adventures of Fudge Fumble 135: You’ll never get a pull on me like some of the rest of the fair ones have done.
1879		‘’Arry on Crutches’ in Punch 3 May 201/1: That’s where I’ve the pull [...] I’ve the tastes of a Toff of the day.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 28 Feb. 18/3: A girl, then, with her hair tastefully and becomingly dressed, joined to a pretty neck and soldiers, and plump white arms, has quite the pull over the girl with a beautiful face, and nothing else to balance it.
1883		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 8 Dec. 3/1: What ‘pull’ has Miss Bridget Cavanagh [...] upon the Messrs Mallory?
1892		H. Lawson ‘The Bush Undertaker’ in Roderick (1972) 56: That’s where yer get the pull on me.
1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 36: I squared it wid de Senator’s pull.
1900		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 5 Dec. 4/2: The higher Courts, where the powerful ‘police-pull’ loses its justice-diverting power.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 27: Well, yuh gotta have pull tuh do it.
1910		H. Hapgood Types From City Streets 59: Once he was able, through his ‘pull,’ to get an indictment for homicide dismissed.
1918		‘Bartimeus’ Long Trick 51: ‘That’s where the Hun has the pull over us’.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 110: Never mind. Be sorry after perhaps when it dawns on him. Get the pull over him that way.
1933		J. Spenser Limey 5: I was consorting with criminals, but mostly cheap ones – the bums of the underworld who had no ‘pull’.
1941		N. Davis ‘Don’t Give Your Right Name’ in Goulart (1967) 35: So you got a pull with the cops, have you?
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 298: I got pull with the Colonel [...] but I aint got that much pull.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 39: The alumni had powerful pull all right.
1979		F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 100: If your friend Stanley had any pull at the Home Office, he ought to be able to wangle a permit.
1988		Ice-T ‘Power’ 🎵 Prey on the lame, release those with pull.
1998		D. Hecht Skull Session 457: He’s no doubt got a lot of pull.
2000		Guardian Mag. 20 May 35: In 1953, aged 21, he got into Columbia University. ‘Through pull. I knew someone who worked there. My grades weren’t good enough.’.
2014		M. Mellon ‘Death of a one-Percenter’ in ThugLit Mar. [ebook] ‘Daddy C has pull with the county board. We get special irrigation rights’.

(b) a trick, a fraud, a knack.

1608		Dekker Belman of London F2: Diuerse other pullies (if these two faile) haue they to draw simple men into their company.
1793		Sporting Mag. July II 234/2: Mr. Lookup won between three and four hundred pounds; but it having been hinted to Sir Thomas [...] that Lookup must have had a pull upon him, the baronet commenced an action to recover double damages.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 259: pull [...] A person speaking of any intricate affair, or feat of ingenuity, which he cannot comprehend, will say, There is some pull at the bottom of it, that I’m not fly to.
c.1880		in Matthews Cockney Past and Present (1938) 57: A werry tidy pull for coves with a bit of money to lay out.

(c) (US) an unacceptable act or situation.

1834

Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) Mar. 22 2/2: He used to [...] fall in with his blossom, who would make no bones to introduce him to the larder [...] Now this is a dead pull, and there must be a stop put to it.

(d) a physical advantage.

1853		G.J. Whyte-Melville Digby Grand (1890) 59: You are the lightest weight, a great pull on snow-shoes.
1864		J.F. Mortlock Experiences of a Convict (1965) 26: At roulette the ‘pull’ in favour of the table was about nineteen to eighteen.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter II 265: ‘I think, Sir, they will both come to grief. If either of the muffs have a pulì over the other, I consider Mr. Bluster ’as the call’.

(e) an ulterior motive, a hidden agenda.

1890		‘’Arry on the ’Oliday Season’ in Punch 16 Aug. 74/1: Life’s greatest pulls, dontcherknow / Are to look up to sparklers above us, and down on poor duffers below.
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 30: ‘Come off,’ I says; ‘he would n’t be writin’ notes and comin’ ’round here unless he had some pull.’.

(f) an anxious or worrying moment that ‘tugs at one’s heartstrings’.

1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1936		W. Holtby South Riding (1988) 379: Well, that had been a pull, and risky too.
1956		B. Behan Quare Fellow (1960) Act II: It’s a long old pull till eight tomorrow morning.

(a) the act of drinking, a drink.

c.1730		‘The Dame of Honour’ in C. Lovat Fraser Chap Book (1920) Sept. 11: Of humming Beer, my Cellar full, / I was the yearly Doner; / When toping Knaves had many a pull.
1855		Broadway Belle (NY) 10 Sept. n.p.: Taking a hearty ‘pull’ at a pewter pot of foaming ale.
1864		Oreals Indep. Standard (Irasburgh, VT) 18 Nov. 1/2: ‘Well [...] first take a pull on this,’ drawing out a huge bottle.
1898		Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 24 Dec. 1/5: I [...] takes another swingin’ big pull at the rum.
1898		Regiment 11 June 165/1: [A] hearty pull at the pewter.
1942		W.R. Burnett Quick Brown Fox 115: Brant took a long pull; then he put the bottle between them.
1950		R. Starnes And When She Was Bad 129: He [...] took a pull at the highball.
1961		W.R. Burnett Conant 14: Mike shifted his weight slightly, took a long pull from his drink.
1974		N. Heard Cold Fire Burning 50: [T]aking another pull on the bottle.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 35: [He] took a careful pull on his vodka.
1992		G.P. Pelecanos Firing Offense 43: [H]e cracked two Colts. He handed me one and we both had long pulls.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 18: He follows it with a quick pull from his beer.
2023		A. Nette Orphan Road 82: Chance took a large pull of the beer.

(b) (US Und.) the act of drawing a gun.

1926

J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 150: Bad man rode from the Texas Panhandle [...] to shoot it out with him, and he dropped them all. He beat them all to the ‘pull’.

(c) a puff on a pipe; a (puff on a) cigarette.

1865		Dundee People’s Jrnl 25 Nov. 2/5: ‘I have to request that you will [...] put out that pipe.’ ‘O, dear, don’t be disagreeable now [...] why, I’ll favour you with a pull, sir’.
1871		Falkirk Herald 6 Apr. 2/1: He takes a pull at the opium-pipe, and then puts it in the mouth of the drowsy lascar.
1940		‘Smokers’ Sl.’ in AS XV:3 Oct. 336/1: If you only want a puff or two on another person’s cigarette, you might ask for a nip, or a drag, or a pull.
1952		(con. 1948) G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 100: ‘Sue me,’ he said, taking a good pull on the stogie.
1962		A. La Guma Walk in the Night (1968) 77: Take a pull, pally.
1999		(con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 25: Just wrap up another zoot and [...] you’d better give Sharon a few pulls.
2002		D.H. Sterry Chicken (2003) 51: She takes a deep pull on her fag and I feel the heat of her cherry on my belly.
2005		Jade LB Keisha the Sket (2021) 60: ‘A peice [sic] of rock which woz [...] dun in 2 or 3 pulls’.

(d) an act of masturbation.

1989		R.G. Barrett Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 178: Then you can do what you like. Read, think [...] Have a pull if you like.
1990		R.G. Barratt ‘Duck It’s the Silly Season’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] It [i.e. killing birds] must be a great feeling. Almost as good as the pull they have afterwards.

(a) (UK Und.) a successful theft or the profits it brings.

1855		W. Phillips Wild Tribes of London 65: There are thieves on all sides of us. They do the work, but who gets the pull? Why, the Jews.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor IV 320/1: That and the following day we had a good pull. It amounted to about 19l-. each.
1883		J. Greenwood Tag, Rag & Co. 22: ‘It isn’t the likes of me that gets the profit.’ [...] ‘It’s them the makers work for who get the pull.’.

(b) (US) a police raid.

1901

C.R. Wooldridge Hands Up! 79: When a ‘pull’ or raid was made on this place it was necessary to close every avenue of escape.

(c) an act of sexual conquest.

1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 182: You’d slap ther town. You’d have firs’ pull ermong ther doods, ’n’ cud pick one t’ suit.
1973		M. Amis Rachel Papers 33: A mental chant, timor mortis conturbat me, and I began on my clumsiest pull ever.
1974		G.F. Newman You Flash Bastard 85: Sneed contemplated how he could best give her a pull after their unfavourable start.

(d) an object of sexual conquest; one who can be seduced.

1969		Fabian & Byrne Groupie 219: ‘I’m not going to sleep with you.’ [...] ‘Why not?’ ‘Because I’m not an easy pull.’.
1973		M. Amis Rachel Papers 37: It was so obviously me and my pull and Geoffrey and his pull getting together to plan a spotty removal to someone’s house.

(e) an arrest.

1953		W. Brown Run, Chico, Run (1959) 8: A cigarette; a plain-clothes waiting to make a pull wouldn’t light up.
1977		G.F. Newman Villain’s Tale 55: What happened was I went and got a pull on my form, that’s all. They went and found a fucking shooter at my place, they did.
1983		J. Sullivan ‘May the Force be with You’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] You’ve got less chance of a pull than the Queen!
1999		(con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 142: Say the beast caught us at Chemist’s yard, he would have got pull as well.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 74: Did anyone get a pull?
2006		D. Seabrook Jack of Jumps (2007) 269: After he went the [Kray] twins were expecting a pull, but it didn’t happen.

(f) (Aus.) that which has been earned.

1967

‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxviii 10/3: pull: Anything earned one way or another.

(g) a prostitute of either sex.

1993

J. Green It [ebook] One Arab sheikh would have guards with guns in the dining room, and there'd be a couple of male clients, and he'd fill the rest of the table with high class pulls, men and women, two or three of each - stunning, gorgeous women, beautifully dressed, real diamonds, etc.