The Public School Word-book / A conribution to to a historical glossary of words phrases and turns of expression obsolete and in current use peculiar to our great public schools together with some that have been or are modish at the universities

by John Stephen Farmer

Play, subs. (Sherborne: obsolete—otherwise general).—A holiday, half or whole.

1865. Etoniana, 115. Eton versification was very good indeed ... exercises ... from their excellence, were laid before the provost, by a time-honoured custom, as a claim for the weekly half-holiday called “PLAY”—a ceremony which some other public schools have borrowed.

To beg a play (Westminster).—See Early Play and Westminster Play.

Playing-fields, subs. (Eton).—There are seven separate grounds—Upper Club, Lower Club, Upper Sixpenny, Sixpenny, Jordan, Mesopotamia, and the new ground in “Agars Plough.”

1890. Great Public Schools, 59. Every one knows the Playing-fields. They are the crowning glory, the eye of Eton ... they are always beautiful.

Pleb, subs. (Westminster).—A tradesman’s son.

Pledge, verb (Winchester).—To give away: e.g. “PLEDGE me” = “after you”; “PLEDGE you” = “give, pass, or lend me;” “I’ll PLEDGE it you when I’ve done with it.”

1882. Skeat [Wrench]. Skeat says it comes from a Latin præbium, connected with præbere, in which case PLEDGE simply means “give.”

Plodge, verb (Durham).—To paddle.

Plough (or Pluck), verb (common).—To reject: as in an examination.