Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) a (young) woman, also as term of address.

1608		Dekker Honest Whore Pt 2 (1630) I iii: It’s no matter, we ha had knocking Pusses enow already.
1611		Middleton & Dekker Roaring Girle IV ii: I’ll not bate one sixpence. – I’ll maul you, puss, for spitting.
1621		R. Burton Anatomy of Melancholy (1850) 509: Pleasant names may be invented; bird, mouse, lamb, puss, pigeon, pigsney, kid, honey, love, dove, chicken, &c. he puts on her.
1632		R. Brome Covent-Garden Weeded IV i: I [...] was stayed, I vow, by the bravest sport, baiting of a fellow or two with our Pusse-cats here.
c.1642		T. Killigrew Parson’s Wedding (1664) V iv: Away, puss, if you flatter me.
1654		E. Gayton Pleasant Notes III v 93: What ever thou and the foule pusse did doe (sub Rosa as they say) while you were plucking of her Rose.
1660		J. Tatham Rump IV i: I will have eight gentlemen Ushers, that Puss Bess had Foure.
1689		T. Shadwell Bury Fair II i: What a Pox, is this Puss my Wife here?
1695		‘Once, Twice, Thrice, I Julia Try’d’ in Farmer (1897) II 83: Once, Twice, Thrice I Julia try’d, / The Scornful Puss as oft deny’d.
1711		R. L’Estrange Present from the October-Club 14: Was ever such a Damn’d ill-natur’d Puss, To serve her very Landlord thus?
1722		Proceedings Old Bailey 10 Oct. 4/2: The deceased followed her Husband, called the prisoner poor beggarly Bitch, nasty draggle tail’d toad, ugly Puss, and stinking Punk, bid her go wash her Smock, and continued such language till she fell down dead by her Husband.
1749		Fielding Tom Jones (1959) 179: I little thought what puss he was looking after; but it shall be the worst he ever vound in his life. She shall be no better than carrion.
1761		G. Colman Jealous Wife II ii: Gone! what a pox had I just run her down, and is the little puss stole away at last?
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 123: How dare you thus / Chatter to me, you saucy puss?
1792		G.S. Carey Dupes of Fancy 17: Oh, never mind the little Puss.
1804		Sporting Mag. Jan. XXIII 228/1: Ah, Nan! thou art a bucksome puss.
1812		J. Bell Jr. (ed.) Rhymes of Northern Bards 254: Each cuddles his coney or rabbit, / And pleasantly purrs with puss-cats; / Hence with husky harlots cohabit, / And handle a herdling’s old hats.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 142: ‘Ma’am Puss’ a pert lass, bar-maid at a tavern; or one suspected of loose practices, with a saucy tongue, is a Ma’am Puss.
1838		Comic Almanack May 137: ‘And now my pretty puss,’ Says he.
1841		D. Boucicault London Assurance in London Assurance and other Victorian Comedies (2001) Act III: lady gay: Max! max: Come in, you mischievous puss.
1850		Bell’s Life in Sydney 9 Mar. 3/2: It was found the little puss paid more attention to H. M. infantry than to Mr. Y.
1854		T. Buckley Sydenham Greenfinch 34: ‘Don’t be satirical, puss,’ he replied.
1859		‘George Eliot’ Adam Bede (1873) 85: The little puss seems already to have airs enough to make a husband [...] miserable.
1864		G.A. Sala Quite Alone I 48: The ‘little puss’ had been crying her eyes out.
1876		M.E. Braddon Dead Men’s Shoes II 165: ‘Artful puss,’ thinks Stephen.
1881		Loves of Venus 17: No doubt the sly puss had a good look at her fate.
1886		M.E. Kennard Girl in the Brown Habit I 99: ‘Ah! you puss!’ said he, with an indulgent smile.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 12 Oct. 1/2: Sly little puss.
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 1 Mar. 7/4: ‘Kiss me, puss, and open another bottle of champagne’.
1899		A. Binstead Houndsditch Day by Day 153: No, puss, no; to Heligoland with the Chesterfield.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 2 Sept. 4/7: The naughty little puss [...] tried to sit in my lap.
1908		A.N. Lyons Arthur’s 215: There’s a bad-tempered little puss, now.
1917		‘Henry Handel Richardson’ Aus. Felix (1971) 59: By Jupiter, yes! [...] The little puss!
1920		B. Cronin Timber Wolves 22: Blest if she ain’t been to sleep in her chair. Lazy little puss.
1939		H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn (1964) 253: Don’t let that sour-balled puss muck up your life for you.
1943		‘Henry Green’ Caught (2001) 142: He asked himself what he would not give to have this puss mouth jam off his cheek by a river bank.
1954		G. Lamming Emigrants (1980) 177: Somebody’s getting a piece o’ puss.
1970		C. Brown Down All the Days 149: And how’s the oul puss-puss tonight, Delia, me darling?
1975		J. McClure Snake 169: A swanky puss like Shirl.
1997–2000		College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Puss (possibly offensive)} (noun) A female.

(b) a prostitute, a madame.

1632		R. Brome Covent-Garden Weeded IV i: Nay, you perpetual Pusse.
1655		Gossips Braule 6: I never tyred going to Hackney for Turn-ups yet; mark ye that Puss.
1664		C. Cotton Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk I 6: That cross-grain’d peevish scolding Quean, / That scratching cater-wawling Puss.
1674		Head Eng. Rogue III 81: I met with several that had nibled on the bait of concupiscence, but they were such flounder-mouth’d, draggle-tail’d dirty Pusses, that I put would not venture upon any of them.
1709		‘Phoebe Crackenthorpe’ Female Tatler (1992) (10) 19: He mimick’d and ridicul’d all the quality in the kingdom; this lady was a trapes, t’other a puss.
1727		J. Gay Beggar’s Opera III i: Mistress Puss! – Out of my Sight, wanton Strumpet!
1731		Prisoners Opera 23: Farewel [sic] you cross Puss, you may trapes about Street, / And ogle and wheedle the next Fool you meet.

(c) the vagina, thus meton. for sexual intercourse (see cite 2008).

1660		Tales and Jests of Hugh Peters in Zall Nest of Ninnies (1970) n.p.: Behold the Merchant’s wife in her Satins, the Citizen’s in her silks, and the Chambermaid [...] she must glister in her silver-Lace-on the upper coat, half a dozen at least, on the next coat, a few less. Nay, their very smocks must be laced forsooth. Take up that and there sits Puss in her Majesty.
1662		Jack Adams his perpetual almanack 4: The seventh [...] we shall call Quistrill, her mark or Character is a round O with a prick in the midle, or Pusse in her Majestie.
1674		‘Trap’ in Pepys Ballads (1987) III 17: But he mist of his sport, for Puss would not start’.
1675		‘The Royal Buss’ in Lord Poems on Affairs of State (1963) I 263: Yet they made gods of better tools. / No altars then to plackets were, / No majesty by puss would swear.
c.1680		‘The Highprized Pin-box’ [ballad] The Usurer that grindeth / to get use upon use, / Often time he findeth, / To come and play with Puss.
1708		French King’s Wedding 7: Eager Flesh will not be serv’d, with dry Bobs put upon her, Nor will she suffer it to be Starv’d, I mean her Puss of Honour.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy IV 218: [He] put in for a Course, and us’d all his Art, / But he mist of the Sport, for Puss would not start.
1763		J. Wilkes Essay on Woman 21: ’Tis a fond pouting puss, means good to all; And thereby hangs-no-oft’ner springs a tail.
1840		‘My Thing Is My Own’ in Fake Away Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 284: [as 1674, 1719] .
1865		‘The Love Feast’ in T.P. Lowry Stories the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell (1994) 58: One, more wanton than the rest / Seized on love’s moss-bounded nest. / And cried, ‘Poor puss shall have a treat / For the first time of juicy meat’.
1898		‘Mary Suckit’ Yvonne 67: Oh, the dear litle Puss! The sweetest of all juicy cunts!
1905–07		‘Marry’s Cat’ Bawdy N.Y. State MS. n.p.: But Marry kept hers [i.e. her ‘cat’] closely hid, / Beneath her under-skirt, / And thus did puss escape the boys, / And never get a single squirt.
1942		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 239: A muff-diver’s dream / Because he refused to let puss go.
1958		Southern & Hoffenberg Candy (1970) 54: Cut the crap, you little tight-puss bitch!
1965		(con. 1930s) R. Wright Lawd Today 93: I rememers when old aunt Lucy [...] saw your old aunt Mary there watching with her finger stuck in her puss.
1977		P. Hamill Flesh and Blood (1978) 97: I was [...] Afraid I’d do it wrong, put it in the wrong hole, because out on the street they said there were two, one for piss and one for puss.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 55: A racist, puss-pushing yokel.
2002		Sandmann ‘Burning Down the House’ Planet Sex Stories 🌐 In fact, I caught a glance of Stevie licking his fingers clean after removing them from my puss.
2008		D.R. Pollock ‘Schott’s Bridge’ in Knockemstiff 85: ‘Hey, like I’m always tellin’ Duane [...] puss is puss. It’s all good, just some better than other’.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] ‘I’m not putting my poor puss through that. She’s for fun and profit only, aren’t you, babe?’ She addressed the last remark to her vagina .
2011		G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 11: I give them a three month grace period before one of these Officers has a finger in that puss.

(d) the ‘feminine’ partner in a lesbian couple.

1977

D. Powis Signs of Crime 197: Puss Feminine type of female lesbian.

(e) (US gay) the buttocks.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.
1989–2003		R.O. Scott Gay Sl. Dict. 🌐.

(f) (US gay) an underage boy.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 45: any boy under the age of consent [...] puss.
2007		J. Stahl ‘Pure’ Love Without 168: Jesus act like a [...] little puss, cause he know he so much a man ain’t nobody gonna call him out.

(a) rubber-soled canvas shoes.

1989

C. Hyatt When Me Was A Boy 148: Puss or ‘crepe sole’ shoes was the joggers of them times.

(b) a thief.

1954

cited in Cassidy & LePage Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980).