A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words / Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James.

by John Camden Hotten

PURL, hunting term for a fall, synonymous with FOALED, or SPILT; “he’ll get PURLED at the rails.”

PURL, a mixture of hot ale and sugar, with wormwood infused in it, a favourite morning drink to produce an appetite; sometimes with gin and spice added:—

“Two penn’orth o’ PURL—

Good ‘early PURL,’

’Gin all the world

To put your hair into a curl,

When you feel yourself queer of a mornin’.”

PUSH, a crowd.—Old cant.

PUSSEY CATS, corruption of Puseyites, a name constantly, but improperly, given to the “Tractarian” party in the Church, from the Oxford Regius Professor of Hebrew, who by no means approved of the Romanising tendencies of some of its leaders.

PUT, a game at cards.