Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bilge n.

nonsense, rubbish.

1913		A. Lunn Harrovians 31: Bilge, you never paid it back.
1920		E. Pound in Witemeyer Pound/Williams Correspondence (1996) 37: Then you punk out, cursing me for not being in two places at once, and for ‘seeing no alternative to my own groove’. Which is bilge, just sloppy inaccurate bilge.
1928		J. Agate Gemel in London 40: Some bilge about a Persian Monastery.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 183: Here’s your book. Looks rather bilge to me from a glance at the title page.
1945		G. Marx letter 5 Dec. in Groucho Letters (1967) 19: I suspect that’s the chief reason why so much bilge appears in your neighbourhood theater.
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 153: I had never supposed her capable of bilge like this.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 4: It was well received by the intelligentsia, who [...] enjoy the most frightful bilge.
1960		G.W. Target Teachers (1962) 195: All the sentimental bilge so easy to take the micky out of.
1971		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 66: So we bought that bilge and started running off [...] to Do Something.
1976		‘Hergé’ Tintin and the Picaros 6: The whole story is bilge!
1999		Guardian G2 10 June 13: This book is full of bilge.
2000		Indep. Rev. 10 Mar. 5: God knows why anyone prints any of this bilge.

In compounds

bilge artist (n.) (also bilge-lizard) [bilge n. + -artist sfx]

(Aus.) a braggart, one given to boasting.

1938		T'ien Hsia Mthly 7 316: But on second thought, possibly this prolific bilge artist has at last found his true forte.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang.
1960		(con. 1940s) G. Morrill Dark Sea Running 35: ‘We’re having a bloody argument,’ she said. ‘This bilge-lizard is trying to lower my price.’.