Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) (orig. US) a girlfriend, a gangster’s girlfriend.

1892		‘Don’t Love-A Nobody’ in J.F. Dobie Rainbow in Morning (1965) 163: Luluh had a baby and said she wuz mine.
1895		‘Huntsville-Boun’’ in J.F. Dobie Rainbow in Morning (1965) 161: My luluh said, ‘It’s a shame’ [footnote: Luluh, sometimes a proper name, in songs is generally a synonym for ‘honey’].
1902		Ade Girl Proposition 140: He had his Port Eye out for a larksome Looloo who would pin Flowers on him and tease him to take her to a Lively Show.
1929		Hotstetter & Beesley It’s a Racket 231: lulu – Gangster’s sweetheart.

(b) a silly young woman.

1990

R. Gool Cape Town Coolie 14: I think of Frederic surrounded by all those lovely Paarl bokkies, oodles of Paarl lulus – hell’s teeth, man!

(a) (orig. US) anything, or anyone, remarkable, exceptional, wonderful.

1857		Porter’s Spirit of the Times (N.Y.) 4 Apr. 68/2: Well, he had a daughter; and she, O Bob! she was then, in my eyes, the looliest looly of the loolies.
1886		Lantern (N.O.) 10 Nov. 6: Farrell’s two-baser was a lu-lu.
1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 77: So dat night Miss Fannie told all de folks at dinner what a lulu I was.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 338: The horse bug is a lulu as a long-distance goer.
1902		Ade Girl Proposition 107: I saw a Boa yesterday, that was a Looloo.
1908		N.Y. American 26 Sept. in Fleming Unforgettable Season (1981) 256: The National League race is now a lulu – the luluest kind of a lulu what is.
1911		J. Lomax Cowboy Songs 249: He was a Loo Loo you bet, / He stood on his head and these words gently said, / ‘I’ll be second George Washington yet.’.
1914		Ade ‘The New Fable of the Scoffer who Fell Hard’ in Ade’s Fables 243: You moved your Head at the top of the Stroke; you allowed the Left Knee to turn, and you stood ahead of the Ball. Otherwise, it was a Loo-Loo.
1921		H.C. Witwer Leather Pushers 17: ‘A lulu, hey?’ whispered Dummy in my ear.
1927		(con. 1900s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 48: Oh, he was a lulu, a real, red-blooded regular fellow.
1933		W.R. Burnett Dark Hazard (1934) 63: ‘I think I got shiner myself’ [...] ‘You have, Turner, and it’s a lulu.’.
1946		J. Evans Halo in Blood (1988) 16: Yessir, you really picked a lulu to bust in on.
1949		H. Miller Sexus (1969) 44: You said she was a loulou.
1951		Green & Laurie Show Biz from Vaude to Video xix: When he did stage a meeting, it was a lulu.
1960		A. Buzo Front Room Boys Scene vii: Oh have I got a joke for you, folks, this is a lu-lu.
1972		M. Rodgers Freaky Friday 58: Another lulu of a boo-boo.
1986		S. King It (1987) 694: But say-hey! it was a lulu, wasn’t it?
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 359: The presiding judge declared the trial ‘a lulu’.

(b) (orig. US) a disaster, an abject failure or a foolish person.

1888		E.L. Thayer ‘Casey at the Bat’ at www.potw.org 🌐 And the former was a lulu and the latter was a cake.
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 45: Mebbe you think I ain’t got a lulu of a head on me this morning.
1933		R. Chandler ‘Blackmailers Don’t Shoot’ in Red Wind (1946) 119: It’s a lulu, but you’re clear.
1949		A.B. Hollingshead Elmtown’s Youth (1975) 48: There is a really low class here that is a lulu. It is made up of families who are not worth a ... damn.
1951		J.D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye (1958) 135: We were the worst skaters on the whole goddam rink. I mean the worst. And there were some lulus, too.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 168: Manhattan Beach is another looloo [...] it has been wide open and crooked.
1968		G. Cuomo Among Thieves 340: ‘The ones that get locked up in your special cells?’ ‘That’s right. They’re the real lulus.’.
1978		S. Longstreet Straw Boss (1979) 229: Isn’t he a lulu? [...] A bit thick between the ears.
1985		N.Y. Times 13 June n.p.: Its mistakes tended to be ‘lulus’.
1999		Guardian Weekend 11 Sept. 3: Oh, Ken’s attracted some lulus!

(c) (US gambling) a remarkable poker hand that beats a royal flush [ironic use of sense 2a].

1896		J.F.B. Lillard Poker Stories 87: ‘But I held four aces—see?’ ‘Well, what of it? I’ve got a looloo.’ The stranger was dazed. ‘A looloo?’ he repeated. ‘What is a looloo, anyway?’ ‘Three clubs and two diamonds.’.
1938		H. Asbury Sucker’s Progress 30: The most famous of all eccentric hands, the Looloo, is said to have been invented in a saloon in Butte, Montana, during the 1870’s in a game between a stranger and a Butte miner.
1961		J. Scarne Complete Guide to Gambling 297: This one is a lulu. The gambler who advertises it for sale promises the player that ‘with this system you will be betting they win every time the dice are hot (making passes), and betting they lose every time the dice are cold (not passing).