Plongeur, m. (thieves’), poverty-stricken man, or “quisby;” tatterdemalion; (popular) scullery man at a café or restaurant.
Plotte, f. (thieves’), purse, “skin, or poge.” Termed, in old English cant, “bounge.” Faire une ——, “to fake a skin.”
Plouse, f. (thieves’), straw, “strommel.”
Ployant, or ployé, m. (thieves’), pocket-book, “dee,” or “dummy.”
J’étais avec lui à la dinée au tapis, lorsque les cognes sont venus lui demander ses escraches et j’ai remarqué que son ployant était plein de tailbins d’altèque.—Vidocq. (I was with him at dinner in the inn when the gendarmes came to ask him for his passport, and I noticed that his pocket-book was full of bank-notes.)
Pluc, m. (thieves’), booty, “regulars,” or “swag.”
Plumade, f. (obsolete), straw mattress.
Plumard, m. (popular), bed, “doss,” or “bug-walk.” Termed also “panier, pagne, pucier.”
Plumarder (military), se ——, to go to bed.
Plume, f. (thieves’), false key; a short crowbar which generally takes to pieces for the convenience of housebreakers. Termed also, “Jacques, sucre de pommes, l’enfant, biribi, rigolo.” Denominated by English housebreakers, “the stick, Jemmy, or James.” Passer à la ——, to be ill-treated by the police. Plume de Beauce (obsolete), straw, or “strommel.”