1829 Ariel 22 Aug. 67/2 The company assembled in the large hall at the ‘Big House’, like a large family of children, engaged at different games, plays, &c. as shuttle-cock, pussy wants a corner, &c.

1869 J. H. Browne Great Metropolis 87 On the first of that month, the Metropolis plays a colossal game of what children call ‘Pussy-wants-the-corner’; and the poor pussy who is left out after that day is compelled to move from town or into a hotel, until another opportunity is offered.

1918 W. Cather My Ántonia ii. xiv. 276 We had a lively game of ‘Pussy Wants a Corner’, on the flat bluff-top, with the little trees for bases.

1969 I. Opie & P. Opie Children's Games vi. 208 In the United States, where the game is often called ‘Pussy wants a corner’, the player in the middle is the cat.

1996 Fort-Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram (Nexis) 30 June 8 Other parlor games [remembered by Elma Harrington] were ‘Pussy Wants a Corner’, ‘Blind Man's Bluff’ and ‘Fruit Basket Turn Over’.

1842 Amer. Pioneer 1 182 I walked up very carelessly among the soldiers..and concluded they could never fight with us. They appeared to me to be too pussy.

1863 C. Kingsley Water-babies v. 213 She was the most nice, soft..pussy, cuddly, delicious creature who ever nursed a baby.

1863 C. Kingsley Water-babies v. 241 Little boys..who have kind pussy mammas to cuddle them.

1930 D. L. Sayers Strong Poison xvi. 197 Mrs. Pegler, a very stout, pussy old lady with a long tongue (!)

1977 M. Torres in R. P. Rettig et al. Manny iii. 101/1 I'm not about to turn out. You picked on the wrong guy. I'm not pussy!

1985 E. Leonard Glitz xx. 173 But when Weldon turned and threw his beer in Bad Isham's scarred face it surprised Isham. It seemed a pussy way to get things going.

2003 Ice Oct. 111/2 No-one dared take me on. It's why I had to start backyard wrestling—everyone was too pussy to start something.

1894 S. R. Crockett Raiders 52 Innocent as pussy~bawdrons thinking on the cream-jug.

1930 Scots Mag. Jan. 301 Like pussy-badrans at the cream.

1987 Scotsman 21 Nov. 7 A wildcat kitten taken..reared by hand, will grow up tame and remain like any pussy baudrans for life, so long as it remains a home and hearth cat.

1946 Fitchburg (Mass.) Sentinel 14 Feb. 5/2 (advt.) Betsy Ross pussy-bow blouse, white and colors.

1972 Times 28 July 10/1 His satin faconne shirts tie in a neat pussy bow.

1994 Sainsbury's Mag. Aug. 9/1 Will I start foxhunting, wearing pussy-bow blouses or calling for capital punishment in schools?

1912 J. Stephens Charwoman's Daughter xix. 120 Mary was enticed into a game composed in part of pussy-four-corners and tip-and-tig, with a general flavour of leap-frog working through.

1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. xv. [Circe] 459 He plays pussy fourcorners with ragged boys and girls.

2000 Irish Times (Nexis) 9 Aug. 10 We spoke English and taught them the games of the Dublin streets—Red Rover, Pussy Four Corners, Plainy Packet o' Rinso.

c1910 R. Grosvenor Let. to V. Sackville-West in N. Nicholson Portrait of Marriage (1973) 74 I do miss you, darling, and I want to feel your soft cool face coming out of that mass of pussy hair.

1945–7 WAVES Dream (typescript) (O.E.D. Archive) My plump little ass and belley as white as snow. With hair cureld around in the vally below, His fingers were twerling the soft pussy hair.

1960 in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 96 'Twas the gath'ring o' the clans, And all the Scots were there, A-skirlin' on their bagpipes, And strokin' pussy hair.

1972 R. D. Abrahams in T. Kochman Rappin' & Stylin' Out 231 When the pepper tree begin to bear It burn off all of Jennifer' pussy hair.

2005 Guardian (Nexis) 8 Jan. (Weekend Suppl.) 27 We could talk about how to rouge your nipples in extreme detail, or how to shave your pussy hair into a topiary design.

1962 T. Parker & R. Allerton Courage of his Convictions i. 82 Then I got three years for pussy-hoisting from a warehouse in the City.

1994 Gang Bang in alt.sex.fetish.orientals (Usenet newsgroup) 9 June All of a sudden I've become a pussy magnet, and I think it is mainly due to my new attitude of confidence.

2002 ‘Lemmy’ & J. Garza White Line Fever (2004) i. 14 Girls were at least sixty per cent of the reason I wanted to play. I discovered what an incredible pussy magnet guitars were at the end of the school year.

2018 @bebetterbegood1 18 Nov. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) Firefighters have always been pussy magnets.

1967 M. Procter Exercise Hoodwink xiii. 91 He became the wheel man of a ‘pussy’ mob... The Flying Squad caught him with a car load of stolen furs.

1886 R. E. G. Cole Gloss. Words S.-W. Lincs. 114 Pussy-paums, the Catkins of the Sallow; the so-called Palm or Paum; sometimes called Goslings.

1936 N. Streatfeild Ballet Shoes ix. 134 The catkins and pussy palm showed there would not be much more winter.

1978 Guardian Weekly 26 Mar. 19/1 They used to start coming in April like the returning swallows and house martins. Then they arrived for the daffodils and pussy palm.

1963 R. I. McDavid & D. W. Maurer Mencken's Amer. Lang. (new ed.) xi. 730 Pussy posse, the vice squad.

1973 P. Maas Serpico 156 The Times square prostitution detail—the so-called pussy posse.

1974 C. W. Smith Country Music 260 There wasn't really enough time to round up a pussy posse [for a sexual encounter].

1998 Us Mag. Nov. 82 DiCaprio's so-called Pussy Posse, a group of twentysomething actors whose supposedly tireless partying habits have won them the kind of notoriety once awarded the Brat Pack.

2005 L. McNeil et al. Other Hollywood 133 We had ‘Pussy Posse’ T-shirts made up and mailed fifteen of them to the Los Angeles Vice Squad.

1968 E. Cleaver Speech Oct. in Post-prison Writings & Speeches (1969) 143 You have the power to bring a squeaking halt to a lot of things that are going on, and we call that pussy power. We say that political power, revolution power grows out of the lips of a pussy.

1970 N.Y. Mag. 16 Nov. 48/1 Her specialty at political meetings was the Pussy Power speech. With it Elaine Brown originated the concept that a woman's function is to use her body to entice men into the Panther Party.

1970 G. Greer Female Eunuch 126 Women in America are reported to be manipulating their menfolk by pussy-power, which is wheedling and caressing, instead of challenging.

2000 Essence Oct. 115/2 There have been women in thiz biz [sc. music] who didn't have to resort to pussy power.

1937 W. H. Auden & L. MacNeice Lett. from Iceland xii. 161 It looks like a week of pussy-talk.

1892 F. D. Bergen in Jrnl. Amer. Folklore 5 xvii. 98 Antennaria plantaginifolia... pussy's toes.

1968 R. T. Peterson & M. Mckenny Field Guide to Wildflowers 90 Plantain-leaved Pussytoes Antennaria plantaginifolia. The pussytoes, Antennaria, are a confusing group, disputed by specialists.

2002 A. Proulx That Old Ace in Hole (2003) i. 3 Under gritty spring wind the grass blew sidewise, figured with..pussytoes and Johnny-jump-ups.

1688 T. Tryon Monthly Observ. Preserving of Health 52 This Gruel is a great cleanser and... 'tis very good for Fat Pussy People, especially, if they joyn Exercise therewith.

1690 tr. G. Buchanan Hist. Scotl. xvii. 170 The Father being an old Man, corpulent and pussy, dyed under the Hands of those that took him.

1844 ‘J. Slick’ High Life N.Y. II. 89 As..pussy as a turkey-gobbler.

1844 ‘J. Slick’ High Life N.Y. II. 92 As pussy and pompous as a prize pig jest afore killing time.

1883 G. W. Peck Bad Boy 78 I told the dragoon that the pussy old man over by the fence had stolen his cap.

1888 F. T. Elworthy W. Somerset Word-bk. (at cited word) What a pussy old fuller th'old Zaddler White's a-come; I can min' un when he used to go a-courtin, a slim young spark.

1892 S. Hewett Peasant Speech Devon 115 'Er's drefful pussy tü-day, an can't walk vast nur var.

1907 Dial. Notes 197 Pussy.., adj., corpulent. ‘He didn't use to be so pussy.’

1946 Amer. Speech 21 99 A body who has gained weight enough to show signs of obesity is said to be fleshy or pussy (pursy).

1958 in Dict. Amer. Regional Eng. (2002) IV. 390/2 Pussey... Used to describe a mountainous fat person.

1888 Med. News 53 695/2 The most pussy gland ruptured during extrication.

1911 Proc. Royal Soc. B. 83 188 Left pleural cavity: contained one pint of yellow pussy fluid.

1937 Jrnl. Negro Educ. 6 367/1 This stage may consume many weeks in which there is an active, pussy discharge from the canal.

1987 Today's Health Apr. 19/1 If a diaper rash becomes blistered, pussy, or foul smelling you should see your doctor.

1995 Afr. Lang.& Cultures 8 81 Suppurate, form pus, become pussy.

1889 Lima (Ohio) Daily News 26 Aug. Forbearance has ceased to be a virtue and I have got through pussying John Sherman.

1919 E. Dyson Hello Soldier! 31 We held that stinkin' cellar, though, 'n' when the day was done Son pussied on his bingie where a Maxie trim 'n' neat Had spit out loaded lightnin'.

1943 K. Tennant Ride on Stranger xi. 134 Buzz off, Pop. You don't want to be pussying around.

1952 C. Armstrong Black-eyed Stranger ii. 17 He came pussying up.

1978 J. Bacque Big Lonely (new ed.) vi. 113 Is he pulling out? No time to pussy around with him.

1967 ‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp xxi. 298 I'm not going to pussy-out. Hell, I got a strong skull. I could do a month in here.

1993 Hamilton (Ont.) Spectator (Nexis) 3 July a7 A criminal's concept of self respect is that..he's a force in the yard, that he gets to do what he wants, and he didn't pussy out.

2006 Phoenix New Times (Nexis) 13 Apr. You have the option of noshing something rank for mega-points, or pussying out and losing a turn.

1973 ‘J. Patrick’ Glasgow Gang Observed 235 Pussyin' aroun', playing about, mostly used in a sexual context.

1993 R. Shell iCED 195 I, like everyone else, partied, pussied and drugged in the early '80s.