put1 (put)

[Formerly also putt; The dear creature, I doubted not, wanted to instruct me how to answer the captain's home put . Richardson , Clari a Harlowe, IV. 316. ( Davies .) 2. A cast or throw; specifically, a throw made by an upward and forward motion of the arm, as in putting the stone. [Pronounced in Scotland put.] The put of the stoon thou maist not rec he, To litil myzte is in thi sleue. He had heard an old tailor say that in his youth, fifty years ago, put was a common public-house game. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I. 267. 5. A contract by which the party signing or making the same agrees, in consideration usually of a certain sum of money, that he will accept and pay for specified securities or commodities which the party named therein, or the bearer of the contract, at or within a time named, shall, at the option of the latter, offer to sell the former at a specified price. It is used chiefly in the stock-market, for speculative purposes, and if the intent of the parties is to settle the difference of price in money, it is illegal. IMG:content-1350.jpg:[blocks in formation] any short thing; cf. put an, pwtog, a squat woman.] A rustic; a clown; a silly fellow; a simpleton; an oddity. [Eng.] As he gave the good-night to two or three young fellows a little before our landing, one of them, instead of return ing the civility, asked us what queer old put we had in the boat. Add is on , Sir Roger at Vauxhall. What Letacre said to you upon that occasion you ought to have borne with more decency than to have called him country put . Steele , Spectator, No. 263.