plug-ugly, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

plug-ugly n.

[proper name Plug-Uglies, a New York (and Baltimore) street gang of the period. The origin of the name is debatable. One suggestion is that they were named after the large plug-hat n. (1), stuffed with paper, that each member wore for protection from the clubs of such opponents as the Dead Rabbits or the Bowery Boys; alternatively f. SE ugly + plug, a face, or, as a correspondent of The Times (4 Nov. 1876), writing of the Baltimore variety, suggested, ‘it was derived from a short spike fastened in the toe of their boots, with which they kicked their opponents in a dense crowd, or, as they elegantly expressed it, “plugged them ugly”’]

(orig. US)

1. (also pug-ugly) a thug, a violent person; also attrib.

[1848		Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) Oct. VIII:37 316/2: Plug, A a nickname for a homely man].
1856		Butte Record 29 Nov. 3/7: The [...] Plug Uglies [...] went down to Philadelphia on election day, [...] to fight off and whip the democracy from the polls [DA].
1861		letter in Silber & Sievens Yankee Correspondence (1996) 56: What I want to see done is, that if Baltimore makes any farther resistance to the passage of troops through her streets, that bloody ‘Plug Ugly’ city cleaned up!
1865		G.A. Sala My Diary in America I 153: An ‘extra’ of the New York Plugugly and Staten Island Shoulder-hitter may announce that Charleston has fallen.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 195: He belonged to that political class which for many years ruled Baltimore with pistols, knives, brass-knuckles, and slung-shots, known as ‘Plug Uglies,’ among whom he was a kind of leader.
1884		C.F. Lummis letter 15 Sept. in Byrkit Letters from the Southwest (1989) 4: A youthful looking Plug Ugly [...] emerged from the crowd with a ‘be-Jesus’ swagger.
1893		S. Crane Maggie, a Girl of the Streets (2001) 53: She goes off with that plug-ugly who looks as if he had been hit in the face with a coin-dye.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 6 Mar. 4/1: Boxing [is] to be left as the plaything of the plug-uglies of our city .
1903		A.H. Lewis Boss 64: I defy both you and your plug-uglies.
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 242: He’ll kill somebody yet, that plug-ugly.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 247: I do think he ought to stand right up and bawl out those plug-uglies to a fare-you-well!
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 97: The plug-ugly who was guarding Alice Schuyder in Silk Freeman’s windowless apartment turned from the door and pushed it shut.
1932		C. McKay Gingertown 130: I get a feeling that you really like that great big plug-ugly.
1947		W.D. Overholser Buckaroo’s Code (1948) 66: I saw you ride into town with Harriman and his bunch of plug-uglies.
1959		Murtagh & Harris Who Live In Shadow (1960) 20: He’s no plug-ugly. He’s your pal.
1965		L. Haylen Big Red 8: Charges of rustling and sheep stealing, strong arm action by the squatters’ hired plug-uglies all shot back into the memory of the men.
1970		‘Troy Conway’ Cunning Linguist (1973) 53: [H]e now had an explanation for the strong-arm plug-ugly who had been found by the armed guards, sleeping it off in the office.
1979		F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 69: Tools Gunstone and several of his plug-uglies were lounging in wooden chairs around a potbelly stove.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 304: plug-ugly. A ruffian.

2. a professional boxer.

1904		O. Kildare Good of the Wicked 23: ‘Ah, what’d you know about it?’ growled the plug-ugly. [...] ‘If them referees wasn’t crooked, I’d been a champeen long ago.’.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 30 July 10/1: Lengthy cables to our papers, [...] / Tell of London crowds self-harnessed / To the carriages of boxers, / Tell of frantic street-ovations / Tendered freely to ‘plug-uglies’ / (As the D.T. used to put it).

3. an extremely unattractive person.

1909		L.W. Payne Jr ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in DN III:v 358: plug-ugly, n. An ugly person or thing, especially an ugly horse.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 91: The rum-looking plug-ugly who was now leaning against a potted palm.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 100: Studs [...] wondered who old plug-ugly was.
1958		Murtagh & Harris Cast the First Stone 212: I know [...] some plug-uglies who can just electrify the boys.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 272: [I was] really peeved at the idea of anybody thinking those two plug-uglies could be anything to me.
2000		Guardian G2 9 Feb. 13: Crowds of plug-uglies yelling at each other.

4. a carnival float.

1938

in A. Banks First-Person America (1980) 17: In the afternoon we had what we called the ‘plug-uglies’ —funny floats and clowns who took off the political subjects of the day.