Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a man who has been in a few fights.

1680		Dorset ‘On the Countess of Dorchester, Mistress to King James the Second’ in Works of Rochester, Roscommon, Dorset (1720) 25: Proud with the Spoils of Royal Cully, / With false pretence to Wit and Parts; / She swaggers like a batter’d Bully, / To try the Tempers of Men’s Hearts.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 202: Battered Bully, an old well-cudgelled and bruised huffing fellow.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 4: Battered bully, an old gloak well milled, huffing fellow.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.