plug-ugly n.
1. (also pug-ugly) a thug, a violent person; also attrib.
[ | Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) Oct. VIII:37 316/2: Plug, A a nickname for a homely man]. | |
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]. | ||
letter in 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! | ||
My Diary in America I 153: An ‘extra’ of the New York Plugugly and Staten Island Shoulder-hitter may announce that Charleston has fallen. | ||
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. | ||
Letters from the Southwest (1989) 4: A youthful looking Plug Ugly [...] emerged from the crowd with a ‘be-Jesus’ swagger. | letter 15 Sept. in Byrkit||
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. | ||
Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 6 Mar. 4/1: Boxing [is] to be left as the plaything of the plug-uglies of our city . | ||
Boss 64: I defy both you and your plug-uglies. | ||
Valley of the Moon (1914) 242: He’ll kill somebody yet, that plug-ugly. | ||
‘Jeeves and the Chump Cyril’ in Death at the Excelsior [ebook] [T]he rummy-looking plug-ugly who was now leaning against a potted palm. | ||
Babbitt (1974) 247: I do think he ought to stand right up and bawl out those plug-uglies to a fare-you-well! | ||
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. | ||
Wide Boys Never Work (1938) 53: Don’t you think people are [...] frightened by having to salute every plug-ugly in uniform that looks ’em over. | ||
Gingertown 130: I get a feeling that you really like that great big plug-ugly. | ||
Buckaroo’s Code (1948) 66: I saw you ride into town with Harriman and his bunch of plug-uglies. | ||
Who Live In Shadow (1960) 20: He’s no plug-ugly. He’s your pal. | ||
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. | ||
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. | ||
Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 69: Tools Gunstone and several of his plug-uglies were lounging in wooden chairs around a potbelly stove. | ||
Dict. of Invective (1991) 304: plug-ugly. A ruffian. |
2. a professional boxer.
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.’. | ||
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.
DN III:v 358: plug-ugly, n. An ugly person or thing, especially an ugly horse. | ‘Word-List From East Alabama’ in||
Inimitable Jeeves 91: The rum-looking plug-ugly who was now leaning against a potted palm. | ||
(con. 1910s) Studs Lonigan (1936) 100: Studs [...] wondered who old plug-ugly was. | Young Lonigan in||
Cast the First Stone 212: I know [...] some plug-uglies who can just electrify the boys. | ||
S.R.O. (1998) 272: [I was] really peeved at the idea of anybody thinking those two plug-uglies could be anything to me. | ||
Guardian G2 9 Feb. 13: Crowds of plug-uglies yelling at each other. |
4. a carnival float.
in 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. |