or pup, puppy-dog, subs. (colloquial).—1. A vain or unmannerly fool; a fop; a coxcomb.—GROSE (1785). Hence PUPPYISM = conceit or affectation; PUPPYISH (or PUPPILY) = impertinent; PUPPY-HEADED = stupid.
1593. G. HARVEY, Pierce’s Supererogation [Wks. (GROSART), ii. 328]. A Jack-sauce, or vnmannerly PUPPY.
1598. CHAPMAN, The Blind Beggar of Alexandria [SHEPHERD (1874), 3].
| Who could have pick’d out three such lifeless PUPPIES, | |
| Never to venture on their mistresses. |
1609. SHAKESPEARE, Tempest, ii. 2, 159. I shall laugh myself to death at this PUPPY-HEADED monster.
c. 1620. FLETCHER and MASSINGER, The Little French Lawyer, ii. 3.
| Go, bid your lady seek some fool to fawn on her, | |
| Some unexperienced PUPPY to make sport with. |
1639. CHAPMAN and SHIRLEY, The Ball, iv.
| Oh, my soul, | |
| How it does blush to know thee! bragging PUPPY! |
d. 1680. ROCHESTER, A Letter from Artemisa to Chloe.
| The unbred PUPPY, who had never seen | |
| A creature look so gay, or talk so fine. |
1690. CROWNE, The English Friar, ii. 1. My Lord, prithee marry thy daughter to my PUPPY.
1697. VANBRUGH, The Provoked Wife, i. The surly PUPPY! Yet he’s a fool for it.
1703. STEELE, The Tender Husband, v. 2. What does the PUPPY mean? His wife under a hat?
1740. FIELDING, The Wedding-Day, ii. 13. Mr. Stedfast. Your master is is a negligent PUPPY, and uses me doubly ill.
1749. SMOLLETT, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 104. A PUPPY of fashion, and a she-wolf of the stage. Ibid., 155. The affectation of a PUPPY, and the pertness of a wit.
177[?]. R. CUMBERLAND, The Jew, v. 1. I knew your honour at the length of the street, and saw you turn into this tavern: the PUPPILY waiter wou’d have stopt me from coming up to you.
1775. SHERIDAN, The Rivals, ii. 1. None of your sneering, PUPPY! no grinning, jackanapes!
1778. BURNEY, Evelina, lxxvi. I am by no means such a PUPPY as to tell you I am upon sure ground.
1811. AUSTEN, Sense and Sensibility, xxxiii. The PUPPYISM of his manner.
1836. DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, xxxv. Silly young men, displaying various varieties of PUPPYISM and stupidity.
1851. F. E. SMEDLEY, Lewis Arundel, xl. His whole demeanour blasé and PUPPYISH in the extreme.
1858. G. ELIOT, Mr. Gilfil’s Love-Story, ii. Men … were inclined to think this Antinous in a pig-tail a “confounded PUPPY.”
2. (common).—A blind man. Fr. sans-mirettes; sans-châsses.—MATSELL (1859). Also as adj. = blind.
