puppies, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

puppies n.

1. (also pups) in the context of the feet [play on dogs n.¹ (1); thus the brandname Hush Puppies, supposed to comfort one’s feet].

(a) the feet.

1924		Rosa Henderson ‘Twelth Street Blues’ 🎵 I run till my puppies get hot.
1935		Cleo Brown ‘Breakin’ In a Pair of Shoes’ 🎵 It’s an awful curse when you have to nurse / A pair of sore pups.
1938		J. Archibald ‘Bird Cagey’ in Popular Detective Jan. 🌐 He hated orders like a bunion-puppied waiter who has spent ten years juggling trays in a beanery.
1944		J. Archibald ‘Defective Bureau’ in Popular Detective 🌐 They looked, at the detective’s puppies and they shook their heads.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 185: puppies [...] pups The feet.

(b) shoes.

1989

J. Morton Lowspeak 116: Puppies – shoes. ‘My puppies are barking’ = ‘My shoes are hurting’.

2. (Aus.) constr. with the, racing greyhounds [play on dogs, the n.].

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 935/2: since ca. 1946.

3. the female breasts [their ‘snuggling’ together].

1963		in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 131: She’d open her shirt up and let those big puppies roll loose.
1997		Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: puppies n. affectionate Breasts.
2004		Abi Titmuss in FHM June 🌐 It is a distracting chest, but the puppies don’t come out that often.
2007		L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] Amazing what the sight of a B-cup could do to a grown man. Still, I wasn’t complaining. Those puppies were financing the Simone Kirsch detective agency.
2013		T. Black Ringer [ebook] n.p.: My eyes are drawn down to the puppies that are pushing through the polo-neck sweater.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 340: Tight jeans and a loose blouse, to give those puppies room.

4. nipples.

1972

puppies in a haystack (n.)

two puppies fighting in a bag (n.) [coined to describe the actress Elizabeth Taylor (b.1932)]

very large, poorly contained and mobile breasts; also of buttocks.

1997		‘Q’ Deadmeat 20: Every time she moved it [i.e. her buttocks] it made you think of two puppies playing under a blanket.
1997		Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: two puppies fighting in a bag euph. Large, mobile and unrestrained breasts.
2001		I. Welsh Glue 35: Tidy erse [...] it’s like two bairns fightin in a pillaycase in they white troosers.