1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. [Mentioned as a cant term for a
crown.]
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11. Bull’s-eye, a Crown.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bull’s-eye, a crown
piece.
Bull’s-eye Villas, subs. (military).—A nickname given to the small open
tents used by the Volunteers at their annual gathering. [An allusion to
bull’s-eye in its meaning of the centre of a target.]
Bull’s Feather. To give [or get] the bull’s feather, verbal phr.
(old).—To be made, or be a cuckold. Cf., Acteon. The French say also
planter des plumes de bœuf.
16(?). Song of the 17th Century, quoted by Nares—‘The Bull’s
Feather.’
It chanced not long ago as I was walking,
An echo did bring me where two were a talking,
’Twas a man said to his wife, dye had I rather,
Than to be cornuted and wear a bull’s feather.
Then presently she reply’d sweet, art thou jealous?
Thou canst not play Vulcan before I play Venus;
Thy fancies are foolish, such follies to gather,
There’s many an honest man hath worn the bull’s feather—
Though it be invisible, let no man it scorn,
Though it be a new feather made of an old horn,
He that disdains it in heart or mind either,
May he be the more subject to wear the bull’s feather.
1748. Richardson, Cl. Harlowe, v., 295. A good whimsical
instrument, take it altogether! But what, thinkest thou, are the
arms to this matrimonial harbinger?... Three crooked horns,
smartley top-knotted with ribands; which being the ladies’ wear,
seem to intimate that they may very probably adorn, as well as
bestow, the bull’s-feather.
Bull the Cask or Barrel, verbal phr. (nautical).—To pour water into a
rum cask when empty, with a view to keeping the wood moist and
preventing leakage. The water, receiving after some time a strong
impregnation, is very intoxicating. The authorities, not looking with
much favour upon a wholesale brewing of grog in this way, sometimes use
salt water as a deterrent, though even this ‘salt water bull’ as it is
called, when again poured out, has often proved too attractive for
seamen to resist. Again it is common to talk in the same way of
‘bulling a teapot,’ ‘coffee-pot,’ etc.; that is; after the first ‘brew’
has been exhausted, by adding fresh water, and boiling over again, to
make a second brew from the old materials. This probably was derived
from bulling the cask, but whether the bulling originally applied to
the preserving the water-tight qualities of the cask, or to the making
of the second brew is not quite certain. Taking, however, the present
acceptation of the term, together with its probable derivation (see
below), the latter would appear to be the case. [Thought to have its
origin in French boullir, whence bouilloire, a tea-kettle; bouillon, a
decoction of meat to which vegetables, salt and pepper have been
added.]
1824. Cochrane, Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey through Russia
and Siberian Tartary, p. 225. My liquor was at end from the effects
of a very common sort of leak—it had been tapped too often. I could
do nothing but bull the barrel, that is, put a little water into
it, and so preserve at least the appearance of vookey.
1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, ch. xx. ‘Why, Jacob, a bull means
putting a quart or two of water into a cask which has had spirits
in it.’
1887. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, p. 148. In these places, too,
the lodgers divide their food frequently, and a man, seeing a
neighbour without anything, will hand him his teapot, and say,
‘Here you are, mate; here’s a bull for you.’ A ‘bull’ is a teapot
with the leaves left in for a second brew.
Bull-Trap, subs. (American thieves’).—A personator of a police
constable.
Bully, subs. (old).—1. A ‘protector’ of a prostitute; a ‘fancy man.’
The name is often well applied, inasmuch as violence and swagger form
the main staple of the stock-in-trade of such men in levying blackmail
upon the victims enticed by their women companions.
1706. Defoe, Jure Divino, i., 8. Mars the celestial bully they
adore, And Venus for an everlasting whore.
French Synonyms. Poisson (familiar and popular: one who subsists on the
gains of a prostitute, the latter being known as his marmite, i.e.,
‘flesh-pot’; poisson signifies literally ‘a fish,’ and Michel says such
a one was formerly known as poisson d’avril, a punning variation of
maquereau [which see], mackerel being fit for food about that month.
Poisson d’avril properly means a trick or fool’s errand; recevoir un
poisson d’avril is to be made an April-fool); Alphonse (a French form
of Alphonso, a ‘fancy name’ for a ‘fancy man.’ Cf., Adonis for a dandy.
Alphonsisme is the calling of an Alphonse); baigne-dans-le-beurre
(popular: another allusion to mackerel which is generally served with
butter); barbise (popular); barbe (popular: lit. ‘beard’); barbille or
barbillon (a young hand at the business); barbeau (popular: properly
barbel, from L. L. barbellus, dim. from barbus, a barbel, i.e., the
fish, from barba, a beard); marlou or marlousier (general: the second
term is the oldest, and Michel derives it from marlier, formerly used
in the sense of marguillier, signifying properly ‘churchwarden.’ Cf.,
Sacristain); benoît (popular); brochet (popular: properly this is
‘pike’ or ‘jack’); dos, dos vert, and dos d’azur (general: dos = back);
casquette à trois ponts (popular: so called from a cap often worn by
such persons); chevalier du bidet (bidet = pony; Cf., Omnibus);
chevalier de la guiche (familiar); chiqueur de blanc (chiqueur =
glutton, and blanc, a street-walker. Cf., mangeuse de viande crue);
bouffeur de blanc (popular); costel (popular); cravate verte (popular);
guiche (popular); dessous (thieves’: a man for whom ‘love’ is cherished
by a prostitute); écaillé (literally ‘one with scales,’ like those of a
fish—allusive of maquereau; fish, another reference to maquereau);
foulard rouge (popular: lit. ‘red silk handkerchief’); gentilhomme sous
marin (popular); ambassadeur (popular); gonce à écailles (gonce = man;
à écailles = with scales, an allusion to maquereau); goujon (general: ?
does this come from the Gascon gouie, whence comes gouge, a
prostitute); lacromuche (popular); retrousseur (popular: retrousser
properly means ‘to turn up,’ ‘to cock’); dauphin (popular: lit.
dolphin); macchoux (popular); machabée (popular: lit. a corpse); mac or
macque (popular; abbreviations of maquereau); macrottin (familiar);
poisson frayeur (frayer [of fishes] signifies ‘to milt’); releveur de
fumeuse (popular: Cf., relever le chandelier, i.e., to lift up the
candlestick; from a practice of placing the fees of a prostitute under
a candlestick); maquignon à bidoche (popular: maquignon is properly a
‘horsedealer,’ and bidoche = meat); mangeur de blanc (general: a
devourer of prostitutes. Cf., chiqueur de blanc); tête de patère
(popular); marloupatte, marloupin (see marlou); marquant (thieves’);
mec (popular and thieves’); mec de la guiche (so called from his
kiss-curls—des guiches = kiss-curls); monsieur à nageoires (lit.
gentleman with fins); monsieur à rouflaquettes (popular: rouflaquettes
= aggerawators, q.v.); neg en viande chaude (popular: neg is an
abbreviation of négociant, i.e., merchant, dealer; viande chaude = hot
meat); patenté (popular: patente is the name of a cap worn by the
fraternity); porte-nageoires (see monsieur à nageoires); roi de la mer
(popular: lit. king of the sea. Cf., maquereau, poisson, etc.);
rouflaquette (Cf., monsieur à rouflaquettes); roule-en-cul,
soixante-six (popular: insulting terms which might be translated by
‘pensioner,’ with an obscene prefix); un qui va aux épinards (popular:
one who receives money from a prostitute, épinards = spinach. Cf., ‘to
take one’s greens’); valet de cœur (popular: the lover of a
prostitute); visqueux (properly this signifies ‘viscous,’ ‘slimy,’
‘clammy’; the term is applied to the lowest type of bullies); bibi
(popular); bras de fer (lit. ‘arm of iron’).
1729. Gay, Polly, Act ii., Sc. 7. Jimmy: Sure never was such
insolence! how could you leave me with this bawdy-house bully?
1753. Adventurer, No. 100. I learned to pack cards and to cog a
die; became a bully to whores.
1766. Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield, ch. xx. The lady was only a
woman of the town, and the fellow her bully and a sharper.
1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act. ii., Sc. 4. M’L. Plaise
your honour, I have brought before your worship a most notorious
prostitute and common street walker, who, for her foul doings, has
been cooped up in the Poultry Comptor, as often as there are years
in a week.—I caught her charging these honest gentlemen (pointing
to Tom and Jerry) in a most impositious manner, and when I civilly
axed her, how she could think of getting drunk, and acting so, she
called her bullies here. (Pointing to Kate and Sue.)
1883. A. Dobson, Fielding, p. 129. Probably a professed sabreur, if
not a salaried bully like Captain Stab in the Rake’s Progress.
1887. Daily News, 15 July, 6, 5. It was not an uncommon thing for a
prostitute to solicit a man, and if he refused her importunities,
to call upon a ‘bully,’ and complain that she had been assaulted.
2. (Eton College.)—A melée at football; the equivalent of the Rugby
‘scrimmage’ and the Winchester ‘hot.’ It is where the majority of
players play.
3. (nautical.)—A term of endearment in use amongst sailors. Equivalent
to ‘pal,’ ‘mate,’ and similar terms. In this sense it has long been in
use, Shakspeare often employing it. Probably hence arose the American
and colonial adjectival use of the word in the sense of fine, ‘crack.’
4. (American thieves’.)—A weapon formed by tying a stone or a piece of
lead in a handkerchief. This is used knuckleduster fashion.
Adj. (American).—Fine; capital; crack; ‘spiff.’ Applied to persons
only, this adjective is traceable as far back as 1681; it seems,
however, to have fallen into disuetude and to have been subsequently
revived in a much more extended sense in the U.S.A., whence it has made
the circuit of the English speaking world. Now applied to anything
deserving of commendation, and used very much in the same way and with
the same shades of meaning as ‘crack.’
English Synonyms. See A1.
French Synonyms. In addition to those given under A1 may be mentioned
the following:—muche; pas piqué des hannetons (popular: literally not
bitten or stung by May-bugs or cockchafers).
1681. Chetham, Anglers’ Vade Mecum (1689), pref. From such bully
fishers this book expects no other reception.
1855. Cairo City Times. The bully steamboat ‘Crystal Palace’ passed
up to St. Louis on Monday. We have no doubt she left papers.
1870. Meade, New Zealand, p. 331. The roof fell in, there was a
‘bully’ blaze.
1875. N. Amer. Review, vol. CXX., p. 128. ‘That,’ replied Earney,
‘is Mercury, the god of merchants and thieves.’ ‘Good! that’s
bully!’ exclaimed Tweed.
1880. Bret Harte, A Lonely Ride. ‘I thought you changed horses on
the road?’ ‘So we did. Two hours ago.’ ‘That’s odd. I didn’t notice
it.’ ‘Must have been asleep sir. Hope you had a pleasant nap. Bully
place for a nice quiet snooze,—empty stage, sir!’
That’s bully for you, phr. (American).—Grand or fine; this phrase,
during the Civil War, had a remarkably popular run.
1873. Justin McCarthy, Fair Saxon, ch. xix. ‘Darling boy! I had
thought of this already.’ ‘Bully for you, mamma! Of course you
did.’
Bully boy or bully boy with the glass eye, phr. (American).—A good
fellow.
1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxxiv. ‘Well said, my hearty
captain!’ cried Glossin, endeavouring to catch the tone of
revelry.... ‘That’s it, my bully boy! Why, you’re alive again
now!—’
1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. viii. ‘And you, Mr. Frank Osbaldistone,
are not the first bully-boy that has said stand to a true man.’
1869. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Innocents at Home, p. 20. You
ought to seen him get started once. He was a bully boy with a glass
eye.
Bully-Back or Bully-Buck, subs. (old).—Thus described by Grose: A bully
to a bawdy house, one who is kept in pay, to oblige the frequenters of
the house to submit to the impositions of the mother abbess or bawd,
and who also sometimes pretends to be the husband of one of the ladies,
and under that pretence extorts money from greenhorns, or ignorant
young men, whom he finds with her. Cf., Bully-boss.
1626. Amherst, Terræ Fil., xxxiii., 179. They have spirtual bravves
on their side, and old lecherous bully-backs to revenge their
cause. [M.]
Bully Beef, subs. (military).—Tinned meat. Also called iron ration
(q.v.). In the navy by bully-beef is meant boiled salt beef. [This may
either be a corruption of bull beef or from the French bouilli, boiled
meat.]
1883. Clark Russell, Sailors’ Language, pref., xii.
Soup-and-bouilli is another standing sea dish, and, taking it all
round, is the most disgusting of the provisions served out to the
merchant sailor. I have known many a strong stomach, made
food-proof by years of pork eaten with molasses, and biscuit alive
with worms, to be utterly capsized by the mere smell of
soup-and-bouilli. Jack calls it ‘soap and bullion, one onion to a
gallon of water,’ and thus fairly expresses the character of the
nauseous compound.
1887. Daily News, July 9, p. 6, col. 4. The rations will be of the
kind known to Tommy Atkins as ‘bully beef.’ There may be in it a
considerable proportion of mutton, but that makes no difference to
him.
Bully-Boss, subs. (American).—The landlord of a brothel or thieves’
den. [From bully, sense 1 (q.v.), + boss, a master.]
Bully-Buck.—See Bully-back.
Bully Cock, subs. (old).—1. See quot.
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bully-cock, one who
foments quarrels in order to rob the persons quarrelling.