Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) to mock, to tease.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 150/1: C16–17.

(b) to lie; to cheat, to defraud, to deceive for the purposes of swindling; thus bulling n.

1630		Tinker of Turvey 10: The men lookt blancke, saw they were guld, for bulling the old Pedlar.
1857		The **** Club Poor of N.Y. Act III: I bulled the market – lost – borrowed more – the crisis came – I lost again.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Jan. 4/3: We really cannot pardon a man who ‘bulls’ the market in this way.
1908		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 50: The plunger has learned to bull the boobs and stall them off.
1912		Van Loan ‘Loosening Up of Hogan’ in Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 145: I might have known I couldn’t bull you.
1928		J. Callahan Man’s Grim Justice 194: This thing of bulling and trimming women [...] is a rat’s game.
1928		C. McKay Home to Harlem 63: ‘Don’t bull me.’ ‘I ain’t. Honest-to-Gawd Gordon Dry, and moh—ef you’re the goods, all f.o.c.’.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 298: ‘You wouldn’t bull me,’ said Mush.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 53: I c’n bull the press how we’re fighting for the rights of our men.
1965		R.L. Pike Mute Witness (1997) 82: You wouldn’t bull an old bull-artist, would you, Mr C?
1974		D. Ireland Burn 125: Gees, don’ let ’em bull you, Billy. Let them lead you on and you’ll be working like a navvy ’fore you know where you are.
1981		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 2: bull – tease, be dishonest: I surely hope he’s not bulling me about coming to town next weekend.

(c) (Aus.) to brag, to boast; thus bulling n., bulldocia n., boasting.

1884		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 235: The old fool he bulled right along, spite of all the duke could say or do.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 30: BULLING: [...] to talk illogically or ignorantly: wandering in your mind: ‘You’re only bulling.’.
1920		S. Lewis Main Street (1921) 416: Next time you hear some zob from Yahooville-on-the-Hudson chewing the rag and bulling and trying to get your goat tell him that no two-fisted enterprising Westerner would have New York for a gift!
1934		Z.N. Hurston Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1995) 54: Mens on dese camps is full uh bulldocia ’til they smell uh good size fist.
1935		E. Anderson Hungry Men 47: He might be bullin’ some, but that man has been around.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 14: To bull, to brag, talk nonsense.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 245: I was bulling and Herb knew it.

(d) (US) to chat, to gossip.

1924		P. Marks Plastic Age 99: We are n’t going to get anything done if we just sit around and bull.
1945		C. Himes If He Hollers 190: He’d stopped outside in the companionway to bull with a guy.
1956		‘Ed Lacy’ Men from the Boys (1967) 43: I can’t sit here and bull with you while the other girls are turning all the tricks.

(a) of a man, to have sexual intercourse; thus bulling n., sexual intercourse.

1650		H. Neville Newes from the New Exchange 6: An old Sophister (Dr Smell-smock, alias Mr Osbaston).
1675		C. Cotton Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 182: I had a Spell / To bull my Cow invisible.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 431: He saw [...] some ruddy country lass / That took his eye so much, he was / Contriving how to get a grope-a, / Or bull her, as he did europa.
1797		Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) II 250: [as cit. 1772].
1834		‘Milk From The Bull’ in Black Joke 16: For he knew, the sly elf, / That a widow with pelf, / Wanted bulling—and she dwelt just by.
1930		J. Lait Gangster Girl 94: Boys that age—when they’re trying to bull a broad—go heavy on how brave they are.

(b) to cajole; to cow, to intimidate; thus bulled adj.

1882		A. Trumble Mysteries of N.Y. 20: Every city man that knows anything bulls us down.
1907		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 16: I wonder if I can bull this pill roller into selling me a jolt.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 169: You weren’t going to let a bullet-headed policeman ‘bull’ you into going after me, were you?
1919		C.S. Montanye ‘White as Snow’ Detective Story 18 Feb. 🌐 He’s a bad guy [...] but he can’t bull me.
1953		J. Thompson Alcoholics (1993) 40: Murphy didn’t have him bulled a bit.
1956		‘Toney Betts’ Across the Board 95: Politicians put pressure on the track owners, bulled them into permitting a select few, self-appointed saviors of the sport to make book again.
1962		B. Veeck Veeck — as in Wreck 288: Had I tried to bull my way into first Milwaukee and then Baltimore? I had. There was no other way to do it.

(c) (US) to act violently, aggressively (towards); thus bulling adj.

1909		C.B. Chrysler White Slavery 70: They will ‘bull’ around until they get ‘sloughed’ and it serves ’em right.
1912		Van Loan ‘Little Sunset’ in Ten-Thousand-Dollar Arm 112: You bull right along in with that thick head of yours.
1931		N. Van Patten ‘Vocab. of the Amer. Negro’ in AS VII:1 27: Don’t bull me.
1946		Sat. Eve. Post 19 Mar. 99/2: I can assure you [...] that you will not be able to bull your way through this course as you do through the opposition on the gridiron [DA].
1953		L. Durst Jives of Dr. Hepcat (1989) 5: The pad is loaded with hipsters from all fronts, mad aces in their places, cool chicks strictly the lick, fine and most bulling.
2004		P. Howard PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 149: The old man, roysh, he’s focking bulling.

(d) (US campus) to act clumsily.

1915

R. Bolwell ‘College Sl. Words And Phrases’ in DN IV:iii 232: bull, v. To act clumsily.