Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a crash, an accidental fall.

1869		‘Ouida’ Under Two Flags 35: Right in front of that Stand was an artificial bullfinch that promised to treat most of the field to a ‘purler’.
1873		Sl. Dict. 262: Purler a heavy fall from a horse in the hunting or steeplechasing field.
1885		Field 26 Dec. n.p.: To trifle with this innovation means a certain purler [F&H].
1900		Sporting Times 17 Feb. 1/3: He couldn’t skate for butterscotch, and at every turn came down a much-admired purler.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 3 Jan. 4/6: Starting off scratch after coming such a financial ‘purler’.
1923		M. Garahan Stiffs 240: My back wheel slithered from under me and I came down a real ‘purler’.
1949		‘Josephine Tey’ Brat Farrar 237: One of the ‘junior’ jumpers came a frightful purler over the first fence going into the country.
1961		‘Frank Richards’ Billy Bunter at Butlins 182: They would not have been surprised to see him come a ‘purler’, mixed up with a curling bike.
1971		Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 28: The purler I had taken had left me rather tender in the fleshy parts.

2. a knockout blow.

1878		R. Jefferies Gamekeeper at Home cap. ix: One of the beggars had [...] swung his gun round, and fetched him a purler on the back of his head .
1883		E. Pennell-Elmhirst Cream of Leicestersh. 378: You were lucky if [...] you escaped the purler that stopped [his] [...] forward career.

3. (Aus./N.Z., also pearl, pearler, purl) something of outstanding excellence or perfection [fig. use of sense 2].

1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 30 Nov. 11/1: [cartoon caption; a boy is admiring a model’s leg] An Eye for Form. / He: ‘Say, Gran, I reckon the middle un’s a real pearler fer shape. What d’ye think?’.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Oct. 36/3: Some of the horses donated by Northern squatters to Bananaland’s swaddies are turning out to be the worst outlaws ever yarded. I watched a few of them tried the other day, and saw every variety of buck and pig-root. The pearl of the lot came last.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 57: Purl, purler, something excellent, outstandingly good.
1948		R. Raven-Hart Canoe in Aus. 66: A ‘purler’ meant something super-excellent.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 83/1: pearler superb person or thing; eg ‘Thanks for helping out, Sam. You’re a bloody pearler, mate.’.
1993		B. Moore Lex. of Cadet Lang. 285: purla [...] a term of praise, close to slang ‘ripper’; something or someone exceptional, nonpareil; something outstanding in its class and hence remarkable.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 298: [H]e grinned and shrugged and said why not since it is [...] a pearler of a plot.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 155: pearl/pearler/purler Excellent person or thing. British dialect purl, to go head over heels, by way of a severe blow or ‘purler’. ANZ from mid C19 for a fall physical or metaphorical, evolving the next century into admiration of whatever.
2015		N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] I’ve still got the shot and it’s a pearler.