pussle, a maid, girl, drab. Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (ed. Furnivall, 78); ‘A puzell verie beautifull’, Holinshed (ed. 1587, iii. 545); Laneham’s Letter (ed. Furnivall, 23); ‘The Fayre Pusell’, W. de Worde, Treatyse of a Galaunt (see title of the play). F. pucelle, a maid.
put, a silly fellow, a ‘duffer’ (Cant). Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, i. 1 (Shamwell). See Slang Dict., 1874.
put case, suppose. Middleton, A Chaste Maid, ii. 1 (end).
put forth, to lend out (money). B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Humour ii. 1 (Puntarvolo). Cp. Temp. iii. 3. 48; Sonnet cxxxiv. 10.
put on, to put on a hat. This was the occasion of much empty compliment. Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1 (Ariosto). Putting off his hat, taking it off, 2 Hen. IV, ii. 4. 7.
put up, to sheathe a sword, to replace it in the scabbard. Temp. i. 2. 469; Twelfth Nt. iii. 4. 343; put up (without a following sb.), Middleton, The Widow, i. 2 (Martino).
puther, pother, trouble, disturbance. Buckingham, The Rehearsal, ii. 4 (Bayes); pudder, K. Lear, iii. 2. 50 (1623); poother, Coriolanus, ii. 1. 234.
put-pin, ‘Playing at put-pin’, Marston, Scourge of Villainy, Sat. viii. 205. See [push-pin].
puttock, a bird of prey of the kite kind. 2 Hen. VI, iii. 2. 191; Cymb. i. 1. 140; Puritan Widow, iii. 3. 110; ‘Puttocke, escoufle’, Palsgrave. In common prov. use for a kite or buzzard, see EDD. (s.v. Puttock, sb.1 1 and 2). ME. puttocke, ‘milvus’ (Prompt. EETS. 339, see note, no. 1647). Puttock is a not uncommon surname, see Bardsley, 493. An older form for this surname was Putthawke, see Chronicles of Theberton (Suffolk), by H. M. Doughty, 1910, p. 177, ‘That year [1748] John Puttock or Putthawke was churchwarden.’ Can puttock, the name of the bird, stand for pout-hawk, from the pouts, i.e. small birds, on which it feeds? [For pout, see NED. (s.v. Poult).]
puzell; see [pussle].