Green’s Dictionary of Slang

an ignorant, incompetent lawyer.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

a lawyer.

1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1872		G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the US Secret Service 83: ‘It’s a good job for the “puzzle coves,”’ said Bill, hopefully. ‘But it’s a long way yet to conviction.’.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 62: Puzzle cover [sic], a lawyer.

(US) a psychiatric institution.

2003

N. Green Angel of Montague Street (2004) 5: Someone decided that there were too many people in the puzzle factory who weren’t crazy enough.

(US) any upper-echelon office viewed as a locus of pointless red tape.

1977		(con. 1965-66) P. Caputo Rumor of War 283: [of the Pentagon] ‘The birds’ll be here, but the assholes in the puzzle-palace have to do their paperwork first.
1991		B. McCarthy Vice Cop 100: He’d been transferred to work out of the first deputy commissioner’s office in the Puzzle Palace.
2006		(con. 1972) Jurgenson & Cea Circle of Six 92: [of NYPD HQ] I tell the truth and those guys in the puzzle palace won’t fire me.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] He has rabbis at the Puzzle Palace [i.e. NYPD HQ], brass looking out for his interests.

an uneducated clergyman.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1794		Sporting Mag. Nov. V 112/2: Nol. Martext, who never the pulpit could grace, / As he wrapt ev’ry accent quite out of its place.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

absolute chaos, utter confusion.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 18 Apr. 11/3: He can then get so drunk that he will be a fifteen-puzzle to his wife when he comes home, and openly jeer at the lock-up, and still have the law on his side.
1888		‘Amer. Bear Story’ in J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era (1909) 130/1: The syrup cup was, for a while, a fifteen-puzzle for the bear.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.

confused.

1826

Pierce Egan’s Life in London 10 Sept. 677/2: The betters were rather on the puzzle, but Reed was the favourite for choice.