underpuller

English

Etymology

underpull +‎ -er

Noun

underpuller (plural underpullers)

1. (obsolete) An assistant or underling.
   • 1698, John Fryer, A new account of East-India and Persia, page 388:

     Underpullers to these are the Shopkeepers, whose Mercurial Parts are fitted to put off the worst Wares, by making appearance of the best, either by false Lights, or crafty obtruding the Choisest to the view on their Stalls, and foisting Goods disagreable to the Patterns of the Chapmen.

   • 1728, Nathaniel Salmon, A New Survey of England, page 149:

     These Concessions were very material to the Quiet and Well-being of the Subject, who before was exposed to the arbitrary Decisions of Officers, that suffered their Underpullers to oppress the Neighbourhood by Informations and Encroachments, and made them the most abject Slaves.

   • 1731, Nathaniel Salmon, The lives of the English bishops from the Restauration to the Revolution, page 89:

     These yielding profit from his Country Chaps, filled his Coffers, and raised his Credit, whilst Journeymen and Underpullers did all the business, the Master's name only set to the printed Bills, vouching his Wares to be Neat and Good.

   • 1890, Roger North, Augustus Jessopp, The Lives of the Right Hon. Francis North, page 164:

     But I that came into the front of Chancery business per saltum, all at once, wanted the skill of an underpuller, as they call the drawer of pleadings, and therefore without some extraordinary felicities to recommend, which I had not, I must needs, as I did, seem less or unequal to the post I was in, and consequently when my bladders that held me up were gone, sink down into a place fitter for me, and that with disadvantage more than falls to the share of a fresh young beginner, whose face is to the sunshine advancing, and mine would be from it declining.

   • 1932, Yale Historical Publications: Miscellany - Issue 21, page 410:

     For though we are both of a trade (brothers of the quill) I make no doubt but we may cross the proverb and agree very well, since the nature of our employment will be different, you being a man of war, and I only an underpuller at politics.

   • 1997, Susan Spens, George Stepney, 1663-1707: Diplomat and Poet, page 115:

     Yet, now that Stepney had become used to an independent command, it is difficult to believe that he would have settled happily into the role of 'underpuller'.

2. (obsolete) One who underpulls.
   • 1703, Jeremy Collier, Essays upon Several Moral Subjects, page 139:

     These Underpullers in Distraction, are such implicit Mortals as are not to be matched upon any other Occasion: A perfect Stranger shall Engage them at the first Word.