Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) to push; to jostle when picking a pocket.

1654		New Brawle 11: Go, go ye Bulking Roague you, go to your fellow Pick-pockets sirrah, go Pinch the Rum Culle again of the Coale.
1671		‘L.B.’ New Academy of Complements 204: The eighth is a Bulk, that can bulk any Hick.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Tout, Do you Bulk and I’ll File, if you’ll jostle him, I will Pick his Pocket.
1712		‘Black Procession’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 38: The eighth is a bulk, that can bulk any hick, / If the master be nabbed, then the bulk he is sick.
1725		Life and Glorious Actions of [...] Jonathan Wilde 8: Being by his father made a compleat diving and Bulking File (that is to say, a compleat Pickpocket).
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1741		Ordinary of Newgate Account of the Malefactors executed at Tyburn 18th March 1740 part II 7: Jenny [...] giving the Hint to her Companions to Bulk the Muns forward, (that is, Push) they pushed him quite in.
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict.
1764		Bloody Register III 169: [as cit. 1741].
1869		‘Thief-Catcher’s Prophecy’ in W.H. Logan Pedlar’s Pack of Ballads 143: [as cit. 1671].
1927		(con. 1920s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 424: Elmer had bullied him, roared at him, bulked at him.

2. of a prostitute, to have sexual intercourse; thus bulking adj.

1685		‘Letter from Julian’ in Wilson Court Satires of the Restoration (1976) 143: Some that know him much admire / His humble love should e’er aspire / Above a wench that bulks for hire.
1676		D’Urfey Madam Fickle V i: Now will this damn’d bulking Quean be too witty for me [...] Uds hash! I’ll ee’n proceed to the Business, and say nothing.
1696		D’Urfey Comical Hist. of Don Quixote Pt 3 Epilogue: I dare now a Wage of Crowns You take me for the veriest Romp in Town – But e’re I part from ye, I’ll let you see, There’s other Molly Buxomes besides me [...] From thence back here again to Bulking Betty.