Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. an average, unexceptional working man.

1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 174: There was two kinds of us, the lions and the plugs. The plugs only worked, the lions only gobbled. [Ibid.] 175: Take that time I tackled the Niles Electric an’ see what a work-plug gets handed out to him.
1925		K. Mullen ‘Westernisms’ in AS I:3 151: ‘Skid-road’ is another word from the lumber industry. It has come to apply to any street where the ‘working stiff’ hangs out.
1925		G.H. Mullin Adventures of a Scholar Tramp 4: He would be a work-stiff no longer.
1927		W. Edge Main Stem 16: The telephone book is a dispenser of information to the bourgeoisie; the working plug has his own channels.
1930		(con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 324: Charley said that working stiffs ought to stick together for decent living conditions.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 196: Working Plug.– A labourer or workman, one who ‘plugs along’ at his work with but little hope of advancement.
1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 5: He’s a working peck: He goes to work.
1947		N. Algren Neon Wilderness (1986) 67: A man’s got to quit it sometime, and when he’s thirty and a working stiff, then that’s as good a time as any.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 67: The working stiffs, who by entrenched unioneers are thought of and spoken of as ‘dogs,’ are kept in line.
1957		C. Himes Imabelle 25: The Theresa lobby was dead at that hour save for a few working-johns.
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 10: Would she give a working stiff like him a tumble.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 823: working plug – A laborer or workman.
1964		R. Helmer Stag Party 145: The average working stiff has only a hour to an hour and a half to quench his thirst.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 25: The Theresa lobby was dead at that hour save for a few working-johns.
1967		(con. 1920s) J. Thompson South of Heaven (1994) 27: The bosses are always high-pressuring the working stiffs.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 49: I wondered what would happen to her now that Joe was gone. Would she find some working stiff?
1978		S. Longstreet Straw Boss (1979) 229: I know the fucking the average working joe gets from his fat cat union international.
1985		J. Wambaugh Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 235: An eclectic mix of professional, businessman and working stiff.
1987		T. Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities 199: The guy was a working stiff who had heart.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 2: He was a bindle stiff, hated by every working stiff from L.A. to the big town because their bedrolls are always lousy.
1998		L. Stringer Grand Central Winter (1999) 234: Ordinary working stiffs, en route to dinner and the tube.
2000		G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 233: Stefanos looked around the cafeteria, filled with old folks, working stiffs, and bus tourists.
2006		J. Ridley What Fire Cannot Burn 114: He was doing better than ninety-five per cent of the working stiffs in America.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 44: His father was a working stiff who died when Mark was young.
2022		A. Parks May God Forgive 209: ‘This guy is a working stiff, a man, middle-aged’.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1959		C. Himes Crazy Kill 74: Slim black boy. Plays it cool. Working stiff jive. Don’t never flash.
2004		E. Weiner Drop Dead, My Lovely (2005) 125: I [...] traded working-stiff nods with the doorman.
2015		(con. 1919) C. Fountain Betrayal 58: [A] backslapper, skilled at making a working-stiff newspaperman believe he was a part of the Comiskey inner circle.