Dictionary

plug-ugly en · ADJ

(slang) A violent thug; a goon.
- The article was a highly-coloured and exaggerated account of the adventure of Roy Perkins, 'our experienced war correspondent' and it contained such purple passages as 'this hirsute bully of Enmore Gardens,' 'a compound guarded by barbed wire, plug-uglies, and bloodhounds,' and finally, 'I was dragged from the edge of the Anglo-Australian tunnel by two ruffians[.]' 1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed:
(slang) An ugly person.
- Thus passed the last of the North Wales Narrow Gauge locomotives, and one of the few American-built locomotives to survive in Great Britain; the sadly cropped though once elegant Russell, and the unembellished yet useful Yankee plug-ugly. 1941 October, C. Hamilton Ellis, Charles E. Lee, “The Welsh Highland Railway—III”, in Railway Magazine, page 435:
(US, historical) A member of an American nativist street gang that operated in the west side of Baltimore, Maryland, from 1854 to 1865.

Spelling	Features	Labels	Source
plug-uglies	Number=Plur		lexicographic