1816 Ld. Campbell Let. 9 Mar. in Life (1881) I. xi. 334 He cannot deal the knock-me-down blows of old Brough, and if you watch your opportunity you may give him a podger.

1888 Lockwood's Dict. Mech. Engin. 377 Tommy, a pointed round iron bar or lever used for insertion in the holes drilled in the circular back nuts of lathes and other machines, for the purpose of tightening them up. Also a metal rod kept for insertion in the eyes of the tightening screws of hand-rest sockets, for tightening the T rest. Sometimes called a podger.

1893 J. G. Horner Princ. Fitting ii. 22 Fig. 18 shows a podger, employed for two purposes. The tapered end A, of round section, is used for pulling drilled or punched holes into line, so that their bolts or rivets can be inserted. The flattened end B is used like the end of a crowbar for lifting up and slipping along a casting or forging into position, or for prising open..plates that are in close contact.

1894 W. J. Lineham Text-bk. Mech. Engin. vii. 286 Before riveting a seam, the plates, if punched or drilled separately, are brought into alignment by the podger and bolted.

1953 All Eng. Law Rep. 2 430 The men are provided with a tool called a podger, one end of which can be used as a lever for coaxing or levering the frame into position, while the other end is an ordinary spanner.

1971 B. Scharf Engin. & its Lang. ix. 66 A special type of single ended spanner is the podger or prong-ended spanner. This has a long, tapering handle which can be used..to align holes which do not entirely coincide (e.g. rivet holes in plates).

1990 P. Melville Shape-shifter (1991) 88 With deft, experienced twists of the podger on the metal nuts, he fastened the four foot tubes to the uprights.