Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also drop of stuff, lump of stuff, piece of stuff) a young woman, usu. attractive and often out enjoying herself.

1771		Foote Maid of Bath I iv: She’s a tight bit of stuff.
1798		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Tales of Hoy’ Works (1801) V 243: A Widow – a nice bit of stuff [...] a most lovely Piece!
1834		Marryat Jacob Faithful II 130: One night he says to me, ‘Will, come up and I’ll show you a devilish fine piece of stuff.’ So I walks with him, and he takes me to a shop where they dealed in marine stores, and we goes and finds your mother in the back parlour.
1843		T. Haliburton Sam Slick in England II 248: She was a’most a grand bit of stuff.
1861		Bell’s Life in Sydney 13 Apr. 3/2 : He was in Pitt-street, where good luck threw in his way the charming little bit of stuff.
1873		Sl. Dict. 84: Bit-of-Stuff [...] a young woman.
1905		A. Binstead Mop Fair 159: I think of a little bit of stuff that I left behind in Nagasaki.
c.1908		Leigh & Powell [perf. Marie Lloyd] Twiddly Wink 🎵 ‘Where is the bit of stuff, sir, you met last year?’.
1913		Shephard & Collins [perf. Fred Earle] ‘Dan, the Cat’s Meat Man’ 🎵 You’re the finest bit of stuff I ever saw!
1934		O. Strange Sudden 68: She’s the prettiest bit o’ stuff this side o’ the Mississippi.
1943		‘Henry Green’ Caught (2001) 146: Thinking to himself, what a smashing lump of stuff.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 30: The girl in the swimming costume [...] Lovely drop of stuff, she was, and proper juicy. [Ibid.] 143: She was a right bit of stuff.
1946		(con. 1912) B. Marshall George Brown’s Schooldays 140: I met a couple of bits of stuff during the hols.
1961		(con. c.1935) R. Poole London E1 (2012) 83: ‘After that little black bit o’ stuff? Are you?’.
1971		(con. WWII) B. Aldiss Soldier Erect 10: One spent one’s whole leave yarking it up some willing bit of stuff.
1976		D. Ireland Glass Canoe (1982) 205: I’d latched onto a bit of stray stuff.
1981		S. McAughtry Belfast 112: It’s the only way we’re going to get a bit of stuff.
1989		H. Leonard Out After Dark 6: He drove past them with a bit of stuff beside him.
1997		A. Roberts Rasherhouse n.p.: ‘Ay Betty,’ a voice Mags had not heard before, shouted from a window. ‘Who’s the new bit of stuff in the Rasherhouse?’ [BS].
1999		J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] ‘Speaking of bits of stuff [...] When I came in the door I smelled woman’.
2002		J. Cameron Hell on Hoe Street 215: All the bits of stuff in Walthamstow came round.

2. a prize-fighter.

1812		Egan Boxiana I 5: [note] The swell tinman, hooper [...] was considered as to size, one of the best ‘bits of stuff’ in the kingdom.
1820		‘Peter Corcoran’ ‘Lines to Philip Samson’ in Fancy 88: Moulsey, whose turf is the sweetest to tread on, / Candidly owns you’re a good bit of stuff.
1820		Jack Randall’s Diary 41: The Fibber, the Touter, the tight Bit of Stuff.
1848		Bell’s Life in Sydney 5 Aug. 2/3: The CAUSA BELLI was simply, ‘I’ll punch your head’ from one. ‘You’re not the bit of stuff’ from the other.
1855		(con. 1851) Fights for the Championship 233: Harry Orme, a tough bit of stuff[...] defeated Aaron Jones.

3. an overdressed man; an over-confident man.

1828		G.R. Gleig Subaltern’s Log-Book in DSUE (1984).
1873		Sl. Dict. 84: Bit-of-Stuff overdressed man; a man with full confidence in his appearance and abilities.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 8: Bit of Stuff, a fashionable person.

4. (also bit) an admirable person.

1819		P. Egan Key to the Picture of the Fancy going to a Fight 34: This game ould good bit of stuff [...] was so confused from the shaking he had got [etc].
1836		T. Haliburton Clockmaker I 155: I call him Clay arter our senator, who is a prime bit of stuff.
1837		Marryat Snarleyyow II 32: ‘That lad’s a prime bit of stuff,’ observed Spurey.
1843		T. Haliburton Sam Slick in England II 113: She is a good bit of stuff is aunty.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 97: I could see he were all there, and a rare bit of stuff.
1868		H.L. Williams Three Black Smiths in Darkey Drama 4 31: He’s a nice bit!

5. (Aus.) a horse.

1886		M.E. Kennard Girl in the Brown Habit I 15: Nags that are practically untried [...] makes a fellow long for a real good bit of stuff.
1902		Bulletin (Sydney) 9 Aug. 26/1: The timber ain’t so extra ’igh, but still, its ’igh enough, / A haccident might ’appen to the smartest bit o’ stuff.

6. (Aus./Irish) a tough, aggressive young man.

1900		Quiz and the Lantern (Adelaide) 5 Apr. 14/1: Yes, John, altogether a leary bloke, / And doubtless up to snuff, / You were a chip of British oak, / A tough old bit of stuff.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 207: The sort of fellow that [...] liked to hear himself described as a ‘great little bit of stuff’.