Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bull-head n.1

[SE bull + -head sfx (1); the stolidity of a bull]

1. a fool.

[UK] ‘Essex’s Ghost’ in Harleian Misc. III 514: Why should this bull head bishop [...] against me roar with brazen bull? / To pluck me from my sacred Seat and Throne.
[UK]Witts Recreations Epigram No. 504: Who would be patient, wait he at the Pool, For Bull-heads, or for Block-heads in the School.
[UK]Oxford Jrnl 11 Oct. 4/3: ‘Oi say, Bullyed, does thee know a mon named Adam Green?’ The Bull-head was shaken in sign of ignorance.
[US]W.G. Simms Border Beagles (1855) 487: We’ve time enough to scud and run to-night, and to-morrow we can turn upon that bullhead, Rawlins.
[US]W.G. Simms Forayers 196: These fellows really have no plans. They are a class of bull-heads—that simply rush and butt.
[US]F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley in Peace and War 175: Ye’re talkin’ like a Populist an’ an anarchist an’ a big bullhead.
[US]W.N. Burns One-Way Ride 195: He was a bull-head and thought he was smarter than he was. That’s the reason he’s dead.
L. Short Brand of Empire 176: You damn’ bullhead.
[US](con. c.1910s) J. Stevens Big Jim Turner 19: There’s nothin’ to be done with Wiley, the more I try the more of a bullhead it makes him.
[US]La Motta, Carter & Savage Raging Bull 50: Hey, Jake! It’s you! Bullhead!

2. (N.Z. prison) a white person.

[NZ]D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 28: bullhead n.Pakeha; [possibly a variant of baldhead, of the same meaning].
[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 33/1: bullhead n. a P?keh?