pup n.
1. of a person.
(a) a youthful, inexperienced person; esp. as young pup.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | ‘Ar’nt This Rummy Fun?’ in Fun Alive O! 62: I’d have you know, you snivelling pup, / I am a gal vot’s vell brought up. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bell’s Life in Sydney 27 Nov. 2/6: The latter inquired what business a ‘pup’ like him (complainant) had to look at a gentleman. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | G’hals of N.Y. 41: An’ if he ain’t in it for some’n deep, then I’m a pup – that’s all! | |
| St Winifred’s (1863) 28: Some of his pups detest him, others adore him. | |
| (con. c.1840) Huckleberry Finn 261: Tryin’ to give us the slip, was ye, you pup! | |
| ‘’Arry in ’Arrygate’ in Punch 24 Sept. 133/1: What saved the old dog, brother Robert, may probably suit the young pup. | |
| Boss 48: Here’s a pup [...] I want you to look over. | |
| Gem 23 Sept. 21: You’re a yellow pup! | |
| Tell England (1965) 213: You two pups have given me one of those joys to-night. | |
| Law O’ The Lariat 128: Mornin’, Phil, what’s that pup want? | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Faustus Kelly in ‘Flann O’Brien’ Stories & Plays (1973) 120: A young drunken pup flying around the country in transports of intoxication. | |
| Fowlers End (2001) 187: You’re an unlicked pup as yet. You’ll get hardened, you’ll harden. | |
| Ruling Class II ix: What are you sniggering at, you young pup? | |
| Da (1981) Act II: You pup, will you come down before that shaggin’ aeroplane is off up into the air and you’re left standin’! | |
| Out After Dark 35: An impudent pup the like of him. | |
| Grand Central Winter (1999) 49: In trudged Waldorf [...] a short, Ryan O’Neal-looking pup. | |
| Rope Burns 9: Ali [...] was a pup so full of life that he had to yip and yap, prance and dance. | |
 | ‘McFerrin and Black’ in ThugLit Nov.-Dec. [ebook] ‘I don’t remember too much about it since I was just a pup back then’. | |
| Rules of Revelation 170: ‘Cork loves a pup and a chancer and Cork exalts its men’. |
(b) a child.
| ‘Guns At Cyrano’s’ in Red Wind (1946) 252: I’m his pup, his blood, reared in the same gutter. | |
| Skyvers III ii: jordan: What’s puberty? adams: When you can give ’er pups. | |
| Commitments 24: Stevie Wonder, Little Stevie then. He was only eleven. A pup. |
2. (US) a spiced, heated sausage, served on a split roll [play on hot dog n.1 (1)].
| Amer. Lang. (4th edn) 580: In virtually all American prisons [...] sausages are beagles or pups. | |
| ‘C.C.C. Chatter’ in AS XV:2 Apr. 211/2: Common articles of food lose some of their sameness when given figurative names: [...] wieners, pups. |
3. (US) a four-wheeled trailer drawn by a tractor, lorry or other road vehicle.
| ‘Motor Transport Vocab.’ AS XXVI:4 308/2: pup, a narrow four-wheel trailer. They can be ‘buttoned up’ in tandem and will follow the tractor, just as puppies will follow their mother. | |
| Newsweek 20 June 91/1: Compact, 1-ton ‘pup’ semi-trailers are hitched behind regularly scheduled intercity passenger buses. | |
| Detroit Free Press 14 Apr. 16D/2: On two of three trials earlier, without the modifications, the second tanker or ‘pup’ of the same truck bounced the wheels of its safety guard sharply against the ground. |
4. see hot dog n.1 (3)
SE in slang uses
In phrases
(US) to masturbate.
| et al. DAUL 25/1: Beat the [...] pup. (P) To masturbate. | |
| (con. 1940s) Reprieve 270: Louieeeee! Stop beatin ya pup! |
pregnant.
| Nocturnal Meeting 145: What if they got you in pup, Rose? [...] How I should scream if they dropped you in for it. |
see under sell v.