Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. nonsense, lies.

1879		Dly Gaz. (Las Vegas, NM) 12 Sept. 1: Special Agent Adams came in from Denver yesterday and last night arrested B– S– Jack, Slap Jack Bill, both noted characters, and a man named Webb at a saloon on the east side.
c.1915		W. Lewis in Rose Letters of Wyndham Lewis (1963) 66: Eliot has sent me Bullshit and the Ballad for Big Louise. They are excellent bits of scholarly ribaldry.
1922		E.E. Cummings Enormous Room (1928) 194: When we asked him once what he thought about the war, he replied, ‘I t’ink lotta bullsh-t,’ which, upon copious reflection, I decided absolutely expressed my own point of view.
1934		H. Roth Call It Sleep (1977) 246: Dot’s a lodda bullshit, Pedey.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 340: I’m not political, that’s bullshit, everything’s bullshit.
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 48: You’re talking absolute bullshit.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 125: I don’t believe a God-damned word of that bullshit.
1968		K. Brasselle Cannibals 68: Money talks – bullshit walks.
1969		P. Boyle All Looks Yellow to the Jaundiced Eye 103: Pure bull and a yard wide, but the melody caught me by the throat and made me gulp.
1973		D. Goines Street Players 10: That ain’t nothing but bullshit ya keep kickin’ back and forth.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 145: It had started out to be rhapsodic bullshit, but on finishing I felt that the whole fabric of lies contained some intrinsic truth.
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time app. C 243: I don’t like people [...] big-noting themselves, and trying to be big-time. It’s all bullshit.
1990		(con. c.1970) G. Hasford Phantom Blooper 189: Man, you are so out of date, even your bullshit is bullshit.
1992		G. Disher Paydirt [ebook] ‘If there’s any bullshit [...] we hit hard and fast’.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 188: No way am I taking any bullshit fae the likes of Drummond.
1999		Indep. Rev. 9 Aug. 1: That’s what’s happening here, the same old hippie bullshit.
1999		R.G. Barrett Wind & Monkey (2013) [ebook] Warren reckoned she was just plain frustrated and under all the feminist bullshit she’d kill for a root.
2000		W. Shaw Westsiders 151: There was a lot of bullshit, man. There was so much turmoil in the air.
2007		L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] The whole idea of ‘auras’ was so much new age bullshit.
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 301: [T]he story was bullshit. It was a bullshit story.
2010		K. Richards Life 58: Rock and roll [...] no bullshit, no violins and ladies’ choruses and schmaltz.
2010		Guardian 18 Dec. 18/1: It’s been a marvellous year for bullshit .
2017		S.M. Jones August Snow [ebook] ‘Church is exactly the place for bullshit’.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] ‘It’s bullshit, but people believe what they want to believe’.
2020		D. Winslow ‘The San Diego Zoo’ in Broken 118: ‘The key to talking to the media is bullshit, then some more bullshit, then conclude by sprinkling some bullshit on the bullshit’.
2021		P Howard Braywatch 362: ‘I’m calling bullshit on that’.
2023		A. Nette Orphan Road 33: [H]er debauched sense of humour, and intolerance for bullshit.

2. (also bull manure) rubbish, anything second-rate or useless.

1914		E. Pound letter 14 Feb. in Read Letters to James Joyce (1968) 25: I enclose a prize sample of bull shit.
1935		E. Hemingway letter 16 Dec. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 425: In talk you can winnow out the bullshit which we put so pontifically when we write literary letters.
1943		W. Guthrie Bound for Glory (1969) 383: They want ya ta sing pure ol’ bull manure an’ nothin else.
1944		L. Glassop We Were the Rats 124: I doan want any bible-bashing bastard who’s never seen me before mumblin’ any bull— over me.
1959		K. Amis letter 9 June in Leader (2000) 556: This is just the official bullshit – thanks anyway for your stuff.
1963		J. Rechy City of Night 27: All those lights, sure you think theyre Pretty [...] It’s bullshit — got the same fuckin lights in New Orleans.
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard (1985) 129: I didn’t accept that kind of bullshit.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 78: S’all bullshit out there nowadays [...] Nothing but got-damn chemicals. Ain’t been no real dope out here for ten years.
2000		N. Barlay Crumple Zone 15: Yuppie balconies on the opposite bank laden with Ikea bullshit.

3. an object or task that is seen as annoying, irritating or ‘nonsense’.

1922		‘J.H. Ross’ Mint (1955) 85: He knew my painstaking was a defiant judgement upon himself. ‘You’re good at bull-shit,’ he wheezed [...] ‘now come and set out my knives and forks.’ [Ibid.] 88: ‘Proper bull-shit,’ grumbled Lofty when made to Silvo his boot-blacking tin till it simulated silver. Bull-shit it was.
1945		J. Maclaren-Ross Swag, the Spy and the Soldier in Lehmann Penguin New Writing No. 26 56: Parades and bullshit got on his wick.
1945		‘Bullshit’ in Mess Songs & Rhymes of the RAAF 23: Bullshit, it doesn’t mean a thing to us, / Bullshit, who cares if Airborne makes a fuss.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
2001		G. Pelecanos Right As Rain 161: Franklin pointed a lazy finger at the unit. ‘Uh-uh. Turn that bullshit off or I walk away.’.
2005		L. Redhead Rubdown [ebook] I told you to stay away from this bullshit.
2012		Constitutionally Speaking 29 Oct. 🌐 Obvious bull manure, the poor die, the rich get laid and live.

4. showing off.

1971

(con. WWII) B. Aldiss Soldier Erect 31: Heyes front! Bags of bullshit! Show these bloody Wogs they’ve got the Mendips here!

5. an argument.

1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 72: Okay, Willy. Forget our little bullshit.
1976		R. Price Blood Brothers 2: If he gave Tommy any bullshit he would get a flick behind the ear that would sting like a bastard.

6. (US drugs) marijuana.

1977

(con. 1969) M. Herr Dispatches 131: We can smoke some bullshit.

7. used metonymically to characterize a person.

1974		(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 232: His voice took a deep dive until he sounded just like his big bullshit of an old man.
1985		J. Sullivan ‘To Hull and Back’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] I’ve just had a very interesting conversation with Chief Inspector Slater, you know bullshit of the yard.