Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a pet name for an animal, usu. a dog or monkey, and also for a person, usu. a woman or child.

1578		J. Whetstone Promos and Cassandra II I iii: Nay, nay sayes he (good pugges) no more of this: Well, sayes she, and weepes, my griefe you do not proue.
1604		Dekker Honest Whore Pt 1 II i: Well met, pug, the pearle of beautie.
1660		J. Howell Lex. Tetra n.p.: My pretty pug, ma belle, m’amie [F&H].
c.1670		Purgatorium Hibernicum 21: And unto dee redend pugg / A place fere I vill hang dee Smugg.
1679		Rochester ‘A Letter from Artemiza [...] to [...] Chloe’ in Works (1999) 68: But now, mon cher, dear Pugge, she cryes, adieu.
1680		M. Stevenson Wits Paraphras’d 78: But now, my Pug, Let’s do a little, / Now in the Absence of your wittall.
1690		‘Teague’ Teagueland Jests I 60: Seeing [...] an Ape [...] with a Cloak and long Breeches, [he] fairly delivers Pugg the letter, saying I wou’d pray dee [...] to give dish shame Letter to dy Maufhter.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Pug [...] a Monkey.
1753		Richardson Sir Charles Grandison (1812) I 617: ‘Take away the pug,’ said I [...] They rescued the still smiling babe, and ran away with it.
1781		Hicky’s Bengal Gaz. 24 Nov.-1 Dec. n.p.: On board the French ship was a Monkey [...] Pug took his station in the Mizen Chains.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Pug. A Dutch pug; a kind of lap-dog, formerly much in vogue; also a general name for a monkey.
1794		‘Epitaph for a Favourite Monkey’ in Sporting Mag. Nov. V 111/1: Farewell, poor mimic pug! depriv’d of breath, / Epitome of Man, in person – actions – death.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Mar. 22/4: ‘See what I done for you. Mind the time you kerosined old Doodle’s pug? You’d a got a sixer, if I hadn’t a “squared” it for a couple of “stiffs.”’.
c.1921		T. Norman Penny Showman 22: The Pugs (monkeys) were in the wild state, and had not been handled.
1922		E.R. Eddison The Worm Ouroboros (2008) 221: ‘’Tis a brave gown’ said he, ‘thou wearest to-night, my pretty pug.’.

2. a fox.

1812		M. Edgeworth Absentee (1886) 162: There is a dead silence till pug is well out of cover.
1841		D. Boucicault London Assurance in London Assurance and other Victorian Comedies (2001) Act IV: Ha, ha! Yoicks! Pug has broken cover.
1849		C. Kingsley Yeast (1851) 16: Some well-known haunts of pug.

3. an upper servant in a great house; thus pug’s hole/parlour, the housekeeper’s room in such a house [fig. use of sense 1, i.e. their role as the master’s ‘pet’].

1847–81		Halliwell Dict. Archaic and Provincial Words II 651/1: In large families, the under-servants call the upper ones pugs, and the housekeeper’s room is known as pugs’-hole.
1860		Athenaeum 17 Nov. 664: Servants have become a separate estate [...] with their own distinction of ranks, the ‘Pugs’ and the ‘Tags’. Mod. Newspr., The stillroom-maid, coming up to Pug’s Parlour for orders .