Green’s Dictionary of Slang

see separate entries.

(UK Und.) a criminal who, pretending to be drunk, starts a fight with a stranger so that his accomplices can rob the victim.

c.1850

Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict. n.p.: Bully bancos fellows who prowl the streets in tens or dozens, and one of the party assuming drunkenness takes occasion to quarrel with some genteely dressed person, whose appearance indicates hi[s] having property about him, (the thief[’s]) associates come up, surround, and plunder him.

a thug who deliberately starts fights between others, so as to rob them in the confusion.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

one who deliberately encourages quarrels so as to rob those who are engaged in the argument.

1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: bully-cock a Hector or Bravo who sets on People to quarrel, pretending to be a Second to them; and then making Advantage of both.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1862		E. de la Bédollière Londres et les Anglais 313/1: bully cock, filou qui suscite des querelles, afin de voler les personnes avec lesquelles il se dispute.

a brainless chatterer, a talkative bore.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Bully-fop, a Maggot-pated, huffing, silly ratling Fellow.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: bully fop, a silly rattling fellow, kept in a bawdy-house for the purpose of deception.

a pimp.

1714		T. Lucas Lives of the Gamesters (1930) 147: To which Bully-hack thus reply’d, That if she doubted the truth of what he had said [etc.].
1724		Hist. of the remarkable Life of John Sheppard 52: I went to Shoe-lane end but there meeting with a Bully Hack of the Town.
1730		Hist. of Col. Francis Charteris 30: His Grace was wondering how the Devil the [...] Bully-Hacks of the Town did run themselves headlong into Duels [...] on every trifling Occasion.

see hector n.

one who poses as a prostitute’s husband then defrauds her client of his money by threats of violence or blackmail.

1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn) 74: No man more constantly imployeth his Brains than this Bully-Huff.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Bully-huff, a poor sorry Rogue that haunts Bawdy-houses, and pretends to get Money out of Gentlemen and others, Rattling and Swearing the Whore is his Wife, calling to his assistance a parcel of Hectors.
1705–07		N. Ward Hudibras Redivivus I:8 14: Because they love like Bully Huff, / To Things decide by Kick and Cuff .
1725		New Canting Dict.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: A bully huff cap; a hector.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1815		(con. 18C) W. Scott Guy Mannering (1999) 149: Here, mother [...] here’s a cup of the right for you, and never mind that bully-huff.
1828		Sussex Advertiser 14 Apr. 4/3: [We] soon passed a long string of gaggers, priggers, Adam Tylers, fancy coves, autum [sic] morts, gammoners, sweetners, uprightmen, bully huffs, lully priggers, star gazers, and coves of all sorts.
1828		Sussex Advertiser 14 Apr. 4/3: [We] soon passed a long string of gaggers, priggers, Adam Tylers, fancy coves, autum [sic] morts, gammoners, sweetners, uprightmen, bully huffs, lully priggers, star gazers, and coves of all sorts.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

see separate entries.

1. a boon companion.

c.1597		Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor II i: How now, bully-rook! thou’rt a gentleman.
1628		J. Shirley Witty Fair One III iv: Hang fevers! let’s to the tavern, and inflame ourselves with lusty wine, suck in the spirit of sack, till we be delphic, and prophesy, my bully-rooke.
1659		J. Shirley Honoria and Mammon V i: What do we fight for? – For pay, for pay, my Bull-rooks.
1676		in D’Urfey Madam Fickle II i: Not a Bully Rock of ’em all can come near thee for Gallantry.
1685		G. Meriton In Praise of York-shire Ale 2: My Bully Rocks, I’ve been experienced long In most of Liquors, which are counted Strong.
1696		in D’Urfey Comical Hist. of Don Quixote Pt III Epilogue: Yes – There’s a Swinger – by you Bully-Rocks.
1762		Bridges Homer Travestie (1764) II 191: Well hast thou spoke, / My much-respected bully rock.
1797		Bridges Burlesque Homer (4th edn) I 15: Thou my bully-rock will back me.

2. a hired thug, e.g. in a brothel.

1653		Urquhart (trans.) Rabelais I vii: Bully-rocks, and rogues.
1672		J. Phillips Maronides (1678) V 50: For you must know he took’t in snuff / That any Rock should him out-huff.
1674		C. Cotton Compleat Gamester Preface: The Bully-Rock, with mangy fist, and Pox, Justles some out, and then takes up the Box.
1687		C. Sedley Bellamira Prologue: What Claps y’have met with, and what punks are sound, / Who are the Bully-rocks: and who gives ground.
1696		G. Granville She-Gallants II i: Vaun. Geddemme, if I cou'd meet with this Bellamour, I shou'd be provok’d to forbid the Banes, beged, by mincing the Dog to Atoms. Sir I. Aery. Say‘st thou so, Bully-Rock, beged yonder he comes.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: bully-rock, a Hector, or Bravo, one that sets on People to a quarrel, pretending to be a Second to them; and then making Advantage of both. The 29th Order of Villains.
1754		B. Martin Eng. Dict. (2nd edn).
1762		Bridges Homer Travestie (1764) II 134: That bully rock, the bold Tydides, / First leap’d the ditch which three feet wide is.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 530: One damasus, a bully rock, / A fellow that would nim a smock.
1812		‘Hector Bull-us’ Diverting Hist. of John Bull and Brother Jonathan 40: John saw Fred come strutting into the parlour, looking like a most invincible bully-rock.
1827		T. Carlyle German Romance III 44: In order to have in the vehicle along with me a stout swordsman and hector as spiritual relative and bully-rock so to speak .
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 8: Bully rocks – impudent villains kept to preserve order in houses of ill fame.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
1850		E.V. Kenealy Goethe: a New Pantomime 133: Cozen, good bye — shake hands, sweet bully-rook!
1871		M. Clarke Old Tales of a Young Country 11: He had been the Bohemian, the strolling player, the bon camarado of bully-rooks and swindlers.
1871		R. Grant White Works of William Shakespeare xxxiii: The bully rock is the man who does not give ground, who, in our slang phrase, ‘faces the music’.

1. the penis.

1653

Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk I 44: And some of the other women would give these names, my Roger, my cockatoo, my nimble-wimble, bush-beater, claw-buttock, evesdropper, pick-lock, pioneer, bully-ruffin, smell-smock, trouble-gusset, my lusty live sausage.

2. a highwayman who runs contrary to popular fantasies of gentlemanly robbers by shouting and swearing at his victims, in order to intimidate them further.

1668		Dryden An Evening’s Love Act III: I’ll bear it off with Huffing; And snatch the Money like a Bully-Ruffin.
1675		Head Nugae Venales 253: She had learn’d to bounce and huff with any Bully-Ruffin in the Strand, Holborn, or Covent-Garden.
1682		‘Satire’ in Lord Poems on Affairs of State (1968) V 386: Amstrong that bully ruffian spark.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: bully-ruffins Highway-men, or Padders, of the most cruel and desperate kind: Who attack with Oaths and Curses, plunder without Mercy, and frequently murder without Necessity.
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 97: There came into the Shop a Bully Ruffian with a pair of Whiskers that covered his Face.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.

3. a villain, a thug.

1825

Bombay Gaz. 23 Feb. 9/2: What is the Fives Court [i.e. a centre of boxing] [...] but a college of scoundrelism, where every bullyruffian in the land may gain a fellowship.

a ruffianly braggart.

1821–6		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 397: Now Dick Parker, my lad, what will you and all your saucy bully-swaggers say to that trick?
1830		A.L. Campbell Tom Bowling II i: You are a sort of bully-swagger, half braggart, half foolish.

1. a card-sharp, a cheat.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Bully-trap c. or Trapan, c. a Sharper, or Cheat.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1834		‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 92: [He] compelled every mountybank, and elbow-shaker, frezier, bully-trap, and janizary, lolly-poop, sea-crab, caper merchant. Badger, Dandy-pratt, and Fidlam-ben [...] tu muster in his army.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.

2. a mild looking man, whose lack of overt aggression fools thugs into thinking that they can take advantage of him.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

3. see bull trap under bull n.⁵

(UK black teen) a police van.

2011		J. Cornish Attack the Block [film script] 41: Then Moses got shiffed by the feds and them things attacked the bully van and savaged the bluefoot so we jacked the van.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 50: We got beaten up by some feds in the back of a bully van.

see knight of the blade n. (1)