1939–40 Army & Navy Stores Catal. 829/2*Pull-along engine for child to ride in..25/-.
1967 Punch 6 Dec. p. xii, Buy beautifully made wooden pull-along toys for tiny children.
1951 Special Publ. Soc. Econ. Paleontologists & MineralogistsNo. 2. 89 (caption)‘*Pull-apart’ developed in a laminated bed of clay lying on gravel bed and covered by silts.
1954 Sun (Baltimore) (B ed. ) 6 Feb. 2/5As the concrete sets these wires are tightened by special jacks, thus..getting rid of the pull-apart tendency in advance.
1971 Nature 2 July 21/1 Fig. 3 shows the initial opening of the proto-North Atlantic Ocean and the pull-apart of North and South America.
1899 M. Kingsley W. AfricaApp. i. 446Turning with an appealing look to the trader, he points out the bareness of the royal *pull-away boys.
1939 T. S. Eliot Old Possum'sPract. Cats 17Abandoning their sampans, and their *pullaways and junks, They battened down the hatches on the crew within their bunks.
1950 . [ see last-resorts.v. last a. C 2]
1976 Drive May–June 90/2 A fuss-free pullaway from 20mph in top gear and an 11sec time from 30–50mph highlight the car's impressive flexibility.
1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 172/1 Electric Indicator... *Pull-down Replacement, consisting of 11/4 yds. brass chain, pulley and ring.
1971 J. Henderson Copperhead (1972) vi. 76There was a Leitz slide-projector..and.. a pull-down screen.
1978 Daily Tel. 24 Oct. 15/2The pull-down compartment in the front holds six transparent pockets for credit cards.
1919 in C. W. Cunnington Eng. Women's Clothing (1952) v. 156The vogue of the *pull-on is still predominant.
1921 Glasgow Herald 25 May 4/7 The turban..does not hide all the hair as do the pull-on hat, the cloche, and other popular shapes.
1976 Billings (Montana) Gaz. 30 June 7-a/1 (Advt. ),Debonair styling in delightful prints. Have yours in a V-neck pull-on with roll-up sleeves.
1978 Detroit Free Press 16 Apr. (Detroit Suppl. ) 36 (Advt. ),Pull-on pants in petite and average lengths, $15.
1891 Pall Mall G. 3 Feb. 2/3 Orders have been issued that a ‘*pull-through’ is always to be used in future, this consisting of a piece of stout gimp or similar material with which the tow or rag for clearing the barrel is pulled through from breech to muzzle. How long will this ‘pull through’ last on service?
1906 Blackw. Mag. Apr. 533/2Running a pull-through down the barrel of his rifle.
1875 Knight Dict. Mech. ,*Pull-to (Weaving), the upper part of the lay, lathe, or batten, which is used to beat up the weft. Also called the lay-cap.
1899 H. C. Hart in Phil. Soc. Trans. 11The weed is dragged in to the beach as it floats near with a pull-to, a very long-handled, two-pronged fork with bent or hooked tines.
1552 Inv. Ch. Goods (SurteesNo. 97) 53One litle *puyll bell.
1919 R. Macaulay Three Days 52How a pull-bell clangs when it rings!
1883 G. H. Boughton in Harper'sMag. Jan. 172/2It is a treat to see a powerful young Dutchwoman handle a rope on a *pull-boat.
1903 Sci. Amer. 17 Oct. 276/3In the cypress swamps of Louisiana there are employed what are known as pull-boats, an evolution from the plan of placing a hoisting engine upon a scow and snaking the logs out of the swamp... The endless-rope pull-boat engines have 44-inch winding drums.
1907 ‘O. Henry’ Trimmed Lamp 136In her mind she could hear the girls shrieking over a *pullbone.
1963 Listener 28 Feb. 399/1 It should be..fitted with either a *pull-cord switch or one outside the door.
1978 Lancashire Life Nov. 177/1 ( Advt. ),Mahogany Bracket clock—hour strike and pull⁓cord repeat.
1973 Black Panther 7 Apr. 14/2 What food manufacturer would be so foolhardy as to place his produce bearing a pack date alongside a competitor who uses a *pull date.
1977 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C. ) 7 Aug. 2/4All whipped butter..bearing the pull date of Sept. 12, 1977, or before is being recalled.
1905 Athenæum 18 Nov. 383/2 Like the hook-stroke and the *pull-drive, it is well illustrated here.
1907 Daily Chron. 8 Jan. 7/3He played for runs. Most famous of all his strokes was his pull-drive.
1907 Yesterday's Shopping (1969) 1072/2 The *Pull Engine. With rubber composition tyres{ddd}each 16/3.
1937 Philadelphia Record 2 Sept. 17/1 Medwick hits to all fields. DiMaggio is mostly a *pull hitter.
1955 Amer. Speech XXX. 153The term pull hitter denotes a hitter who pulls the ball ( i.e. , a right-handed hitter who hits to left field or a left-handed hitter who hits to right field).
1972 N.Y. Times 4 June v. 2/7He is primarily a pull hitter to left and some teams stack defensive alignments against him.
1875 Knight Dict. Mech. ,*Pull-iron, the piece at the hind end of the tongue of a street-car by which it is attached to the car.
1878 M. Browne Pract. Taxidermy ii. 25There are..two unattached cords of some strength, called the *pull line and the forked line, which latter is attached..to the two staves nearest the bird catcher at the intersection of the top line.
1875 Knight Dict. Mech. ,*Pull-piece (Horology), the wire or string..by pulling which the clock is made to strike.
1903 Motor. Ann. 296Look for stretch in the *pull-rods, and wear off the braking surfaces.
1897 K. S. Ranjitsinhji JubileeBk. Cricket iii. 120He..applies a marvellous *pull-stroke to good-length balls just outside the off-stump.
1904 Daily Chron. 25 Aug. 7/3Trott was run out through running a doubtful one off a pull stroke of his partner's that soared, only to be dropped by Blythe.
1968 J. Arnold ShellBk. Country Crafts 74All the ‘work’ of a cross-cut is done on the pull-stroke , each man alternately pulling and releasing. [ of the saw]
1969 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. li. 10Pull stroke,..a stroke whereby the kayakist leans far forward, thrusts the paddle into the water and with extreme exertion pulls the kayak forward.
1888 D. Salomons Managem. Accumulators (ed. 3) ii. ii. 97The Browett *pull switch is fixed near the cornice, and by pulling a cord, the light is put on; also turned off by a similar action.
1971 D. Bagley Freedom Trap vi. 130The light switch in the bathroom was operated, as good building regulations insist, by a ceiling pull-switch from which a strong cord hung to a convenient hand level.
1965 Economist 5 June 1150/1 The successful development of *pull-tab tops for beer tins, so that they can be opened by hand rather than with an opener.
1978 J. Updike Coup vi. 239Take care..not to drop the pull⁓tab , once removed, back into the can. [ on a can of soft drink]
1891 T. Hardy Tess xliii,She..reclined on a heap of *pull-tails—the refuse after the straight straw had been drawn—thrown up at the further side of the barn.
a1825 Forby Voc. E. Anglia,*Pull-tow, pull-tow-knots, the coarse and knotty parts of the tow, which are carefully pulled out and thrown aside, before it is fit to be spun into yarn.
1946 Sun (Baltimore) 14 Dec. 14/6 Wagons and other *pull-toys should have rope handles.
1958 J. G. MacGregor North-West of 16 v. 60,I was at the pull-toy stage. I went everywhere dragging behind me a fascinating collection of tin cans, bits of roots..all tied together with string.
1978 Neiman, Marcus Christmas Bk. 83A purple cow pull toy, complete with the N-M brand.
1895 Daily News 17 July 2/1 The range officers began testing the *pull triggers for all who had made scores of 86 and upwards.
1950 Railway Mag. XCVI. 101 (caption)Dolgelly to Barmouth pull-and-push train approaching Barmouth Tunnel.
1959 H. Ellis Brit. RailwayHist. II. ii. i. 252The Great Western and the South Western fought it with steam rail motors and pull-and-push trains. [ sc. the electric train]
1968 Railway Mag. CXIV. 300/1Pull-and-push trials on the G.N. main line..began in January.
1986 F. E. Davis et al. Desktop Publishing iii. 46You can break up a page of text attractively by dropping in a..quote from the main body of text that you set apart somehow—either in a box, within rules, or surrounded by white space—to catch the readers' attention... These free-floating phrases, which are called callouts or *pull quotes, can highlight important material.
1997 Church Times 28 Feb. 16/2 ‘What is happening in Jewish life is close to becoming its death throes’ was the pull-quote, and I had to read it twice before I was sure it meant anything at all.
2002 Washington Post 30 July c4 A pull quote is a humble thing but sometimes it rises to the level of art, becoming a poem, or even a tiny short story, like this little gem from Elle: ‘Over seven weeks, we were falling in love, leaving bad jobs and marriages, closing deals and having multiple orgasms.’
ORIGIN: Repr. pull verb, noun .