pluggern.
/ˈplʌɡə/, U.S. /ˈpləɡər/ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > mutilating coin > [noun] > person who
clipperc1330
rounger?a1400
washerc1450
money batterer?1518
launderer1632
tonsor1697
money-clipper1759
plugger1842
sweater1845
shorter1857
1842 Times 22 June 7/3 Full value should be given at the Mint for every sovereign, however grossly maltreated by filers and sweaters and pluggers.
1845 Currency Theory Reviewed 69 The inducement which every restoration of the coinage holds out to the whole legion of ‘pluggers’ and ‘sweaters’.
2. Dentistry. An instrument for packing and consolidating the filling material in the cavity of a tooth.
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the world > health and disease > healing > dentistry > [noun] > other dental equipment
explorer1844
plate1845
rose head1847
plugging forceps1861
plugger1862
rubber dam1865
finger mirror1867
nerve instrument1867
hoe1875
saliva extractor1877
thimble1877
finger-tray1878
scaler1881
matrix1883
saliva ejectora1884
sickle scaler1930
1862 Chambers's Encycl. III. 497/2 To be firmly pressed with a blunt-pointed stopping-instrument or ‘plugger’ into all the interstices of the hollow of the tooth.
1872 L. P. Meredith Teeth (1887) 109 A sidelong blow on the end of the plugger may throw the point to one side..and break off or crack a portion of the tooth.
1903 Dental Cosmos 45 22/2 With a smooth, flat-blade, plastic plugger the platinum should be worked under the gum septum.
2004 D. J. Phinney & J. H. Halstead Delmar's Dental Assisting (ed. 2) xviii. 400/1 Spreaders and pluggers (condensers) are instruments used to laterally condense materials when obturating (sealing/filling) the canal.
3. North American slang.
a. U.S. = shill n. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > thief > defrauder or swindler > [noun] > decoy
stale1526
barnardc1555
barnacle1591
setter1591
tumbler1602
circling boy1631
moon-curser1673
sweetener1699
stool1825
stool-pigeon1830
bonnet1831
buttoner1839
button1851
steerer1873
plugger1886
shillaber1913
shill1916
1886 Stevens Point (Wisconsin) Jrnl. 30 Oct. The plugger is of low and rather questionable origin. He began life in a quondam partnership with the gambler in the business of robbing the unwary.
1890 J. P. Quinn Fools of Fortune xii. 404 When a raid is made..enough ‘pluggers’ are captured to fill one or two wagons and are driven to the nearest police station with much clatter and display.
1891 J. Maitland Amer. Slang Dict. Plugger, one who plays in a gambling house to induce the belief that a game is going on.
1912 J. P. Quinn Gambling & Gambling Devices 43 Regular dealers are employed and usually four or five ‘pluggers’.
b. Originally Canadian. A person who acts fraudulently at an election; spec. one who votes numerous times by impersonating a number of voters. Now historical and rare.
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1894 Manitoba Morning Free Press 31 Mar. 4/4 We must choke the plugger or be choked by him.
1894 Manitoba Morning Free Press 1 June 4/2 The Toronto-Winnipeg plugger has failed in his attempts to escape justice.
1900 Nebraska State Jrnl. 6 Apr. 6/3 In Denver the courts have been invoked to punish the democratic pluggers who attempted to carry the recent election by fraud and intimidation.
1926 Times 2 Nov. 13/1 It was formerly a common custom for party hirelings to register in a number of places under various names... These were known as ‘pluggers’.
4. A person who or animal which perseveres steadily and laboriously with a journey or task.
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the mind > will > decision > perseverance or persistence > [noun] > one who perseveres
perseveranta1500
sticker?1542
persister1611
never-strike1855
plugger1895
Energizer bunny1991
1895 Newark (Ohio) Daily Advocate 26 July 8/4 Billy Bainbridge, the gritty little plugger who tied Gardiner for first time in last year's Chicago road race.
1896 Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Mar. 17/3 Wallace, after all, is only a great ‘plugger’. The chestnut can't come with a rush at the finish.
1905 Daily Chron. 1 July 4/4 The boat-club captain's eye has been upon those valiant pluggers in the ‘fours’.
1974 H. E. Clarke Win at Greyhound Racing vii. 95 A one pace ‘plugger’—no early pace.
1992 D. Seymour & T. Seymour America's Best Classrooms vi. 41 The special teachers we have come to know are pluggers. They have grit and guts.
5. Originally U.S. A person who promotes pop songs or other products. Cf. plug v. 7b.
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the mind > attention and judgement > esteem > approval or sanction > commendation or praise > [noun] > one who commends or praises > for ulterior purpose
puffer1624
puff1730
log-roller1821
whooper-up1872
plugger1908
builder-upper1936
society > communication > information > publishing or spreading abroad > advertising > types or methods of advertising > [noun] > by persistent repetition > one who
plugger1908
1908 Hampton's Broadway Mag. Oct. 460/1 The song publishing business of to-day has become..a costly affair requiring..‘pluggers’.
1921 Cleveland (Ohio) Enterprise 4 June 1/3 Everybody out here is a booster and plugger for one common purpose.
1937 Tempo Oct. 18/3 An L.A. song plugger who has spent many years in the business.
1972 P. Black Biggest Aspidistra i. iii. 29 The pluggers kept the initiative by inventing the request item. This was..almost impossible to identify as a proven plug.
1994 Vox July 32 We were in the Top 40 with our second single; none of the other bands did that, despite top pluggers and money.
6. Angling. A person who fishes using a plug (plug n. 13).
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the world > food and drink > hunting > fishing > fisher > [noun] > using number of hooks
spilleteer1832
paternosterer1891
plugger1952
1952 Sheboygan (Wisconsin) Press 23 July The plugger throws his missiles in a 25-yard circle around his boat and gets riled if anyone approaches him.
1967 Daily Tel. 21 Oct. 14/7 Many successful bass pluggers work on the principle that it is a fish with an easily aroused temper. So they use a ‘teaser’.
1994 Cape Cod Outdoors Summer 13/1 Bottom fishing here is crazy; too much current, and you'll be surrounded by pluggers who will give you a bad hair day for trying.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1842