Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to put down.

1938		W. Watson Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day (2000) 149: He plonked a whiskey bottle on the table.
1946		S. Jackson Indiscreet Guide to Soho 36: A little Italian slid round the corner with a box of vegetables which he plonked on to the scales.
1953		A. Buckeridge Jennings’ Diary 175: He saw our famous remains slap-bang-plonk at the bottom of the stairs.
1963		N. Dunn Up the Junction 61: She plonked two glasses of coloured water down in front of me.
1970		C. Brown Down All the Days 148: He plonked his twin parcels on the table.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 35: The first and last time [...] Mick the Muso had plonked even a razoo on a four-footed anything.
1985		S. Berkoff West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 134: You could have shown a face at least plonk your minces on the scene.
1994		C. Dexter Daughters of Cain (1995) 261: Phone plonked down pronto.
2000		Observer Rev. 7 May 17: The green curl of turf plonked on Winston Churchill’s statue in the midst of Whitehall’s May Day mayhem.
2007		M. Rowson Stuff 33: Using my free hand to shake my LP [...] out of its sleeve on to the record-player turntable and then plonk the stylus into the grooves of the first track.
2019		C. Crampton Way to the Sea 120: A four-storey house plonked alongside them would still come up shorter than their peaks.
2023		J. Jackson Pineapple Street 124: ‘Hey, roomie,’ Georgiana trilled, plonking down on the bed by the window.

2. to hit a blow.

1927

(con. WW1) P. MacDonald Patrol 44: ‘I plonked him a snorter, and he [...] lay down backwards’.

3. to have sexual intercourse.

1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 898/2: since during WW2.
1993		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read How to Shoot Friends 112: She insisted that I plonk her as well, just for old time’s sake.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 38: He wasn’t sure if he wanted to plonk her or punch on with her.

4. () to lay a bet.

1925		N.Z. Truth 3 Oct. 13/3: It looked like not being worth the visit to the tote to plonk the cash on Roy Reed’s mount.
1930		N.Z. Truth 4 Sept. 13/5: They are getting their wads ready up north to plonk on Pennyplain.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 67: Big Oscar slipped The Flea two score-notes and went and plonked on Rising Fast [ibid.] 81: Uncle Ern was tickled pink on my behalf even though he’d plonked on Triclinium.