Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (Anglo-Ind.) A ball of charcoal lighted and placed in the chillum of a hookah to ignite the tobacco.

[1784		G. Hadley Grammar of Moors 9: Ball. Gôoley].
[1801		1801 G. Hadley Grammar of Moors: Goolee. ball, (bullet, &c.)] .
1808		J. Taylor Dict. Hindoostanee & Eng. 503: gool [...] Balls of charcoal, used for burning tobacco in a hooqqu.
1810		T. Williamson East India Vade-Mecum I 225: It is asserted, that if a capsicum be put among the gools or be mixed with the tobacco, fatal consequences will ensue; an instant attack of apoplexy taking place.
1828		[C. D’Oyly] Tom Raw, The Griffin 255: The kullean tendered, with new-lighted gool, / While, like an abject slave he stood - this man of rule.
1832		G.A. Herklots Qanoon e Islam 1832 lxxxvi: A recipe for making the best gools (or fireballs) for the hooqqa.
1855		W. Wilson Glossary 189/1: GUL, H. &c. [...] A ball of charcoal ground to powder and cemented with starch, put, when lighted, into a hukka to cause the slow combustion of the tobacco.
1858		G. Forbes Dict. Hindustsani & Eng. 266/1: [W]e may add the taw?, or plate, used for separating the gul (a ball of charcoal, prepared with rice and sugar, &o.) from the tobacco below.
1890		M. Abbott The Beverleys: A Story of Calcutta 14: Barney jarred his bearer, who was about to present a small silver stand upon which glowed a ball of fire [...] The ball fell to the floor, and was dashed into a hundred fiery fragments on the rug. [...] Philippa did not even turn; it was too every day an occurrence; the goolies were forever dropping about, and the servants never burned their feet. They would not presume.

2. (Anglo-Ind.) A ball-shaped preparation of opium for smoking in a pipe.

1866		Amer. Jrnl Med. Sci. 256: The natives of Bengal generally smoke opium in this form, which they call ‘goolie.’ [...] The mass is then divided into small balls or goolies, and each goolie weighs from eight to ten grains, and contains equal parts of opium and guava leaf. When smoked, it is placed on a piece of burning charcoal in the ordinary hubble-bubble or hookah.
1875		J.H. Porter Surgeon’s Pocket-book 227: The average quantity of opium-goolie smoked daily by one patient was eighty-four grams.
1892		H.H.T. Cliefe England’s Greatest National Sin 59: A mason, deeply engrossed in gooli-smoking, looked up and replied, ‘That [i.e. ‘a plate of sweetmeat’] is to take along with the gooli, so as to help on intoxication.’ Gooli is a compound of fried guava-leaves and opium.
1893		Minutes of Evidence, Royal Commission on Opium (1894) II 39/1: Gooli means pill or ball, and arises from the form in which the preparation is used. [...] Bits ate broken off and rolled into pilules for smoking. From this comes the term ‘gooli.’ Chandu is probably smoked mostly in the opium dens, but gooli is largely smoked at home as well as in the dens.

3. (US/Aus./N.Z., also gooly, goonie) a (small) stone or pebble.

1920		Waihi Dly Tel. (NZ) 25 May 2: He is an old and tired servant of the company; and his daily duties include attention to the ‘goolies’. These large pieces of quartz, when they appear in the trucks from underground, necessitate the use of an explosive to get them through the hopper.
1924		G.H. Lawson Dict. of Aus. Words And Terms 🌐 GOOLEY – A stone.
1928		Waihi Dly Tel. (NZ) 22 Dec. 2: At present, said the councillor, there were ‘regular goolies’ on the street.
1933		Dly Mercury (Qld) 26 Oct. 8/3: The rocks were recognised as of the kind now being used on the road job in Milton-street [...] it does not seem likely that anyone would carry two such large ‘goolies’ so far into town just for luck!
1935		Dly News (Perth) 16 Jan. 6/5: A Brisbane boy would throw a ‘goolie’ (a stone) at the bird; the Adelaide and Melbourne boy would throw a ‘qualier’.
1948		R. Park Harp in the South 48: ‘Someone’s been bunging goolies through her window’.
1958		D. Ireland Image in the Clay (1964) 82: ‘They went faster than they came, and with their sails well and truly between their legs, and us tossin’ gibbers and goolies after ’em’.
1968		D. Ireland Chantic Bird 120: I used to get some goolies ready, then scare them.
1993		Aus. Word Map 🌐 goolie [...] a stone or pebble. Compare boondie2, brinnie, gibber, gonnie, ronnie, yonnie.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 101: boondies, yonnies or goolies are mud clumps or rocks that are thrown at tin lids.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. goolie A stone or rock, possibly from juvenile usage of a stone suitable for throwing. ANZ.

4. usu. in pl., a testicle.

1929		(con. WWI) R. Aldington Death of a Hero 249: There was the Bayonet Instructor, a singularly rough diamond from Whitechapel, who in mimic bayonet fighting at the stuffed bags, loved to give the command: ‘At ’is stummick an’ goolies, Point!’.
1937		Partridge DSUE 343/1: goolies. Testicles: low: late C. 19-20. Prob. ex dial. gully, a game of marbles.
1958		P. Larkin letter 28 Oct. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 290: That sodding recording was a flop: [...] I told them twice I was being practically deafened by music and feet, but the stupid digitally-impaled sods said it would be ‘all right’ aha aha [...] I’ll give them all right right in the goolies.
1960		A. Burgess Right to an Answer (1978) 129: ‘You gave it ’em in the goolies, did you?’ asked Ted. ‘Yes.’ Mr Raj smiled at the homely soldier’s word.
1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
1973		Galton & Simpson ‘Christmas 1973’ Steptoe and Son [TV script] They’re nice dark ones. Black as a gorilla’s goolies.
1986		A. Bleasdale No Surrender 84: Kicking a VET in the goolies.
1992		M. Coleman Fatty 307: ‘He’s been grabbed by the goulies,’ he shouted, ‘and he’s still going - what a player’.
1996		J. Cameron It Was An Accident 42: Brown ale Nicky. Put hairs on your goolies lad.
2005		C. Hindrum in Tasmanian Times 4 Feb. 🌐 We’ve got soldiers getting their goolies blown off in a war that a significant proportion of the population of this country opposed.
2012		D. O’Donnell Locked Ward (2013) 28: There is imminnent danger of him pulling your fucking head off. Or your goolies.
2022		Twitter 6 July 🌐 Why a hand on his shoulder? Couldn't they give him a thingy in the goolies?!