Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a general term of contempt, a base, despicable person; a rascal; thus attrib. and cullionly, despicable, rascally.

c.1550		T. Ingelend Disobedient Child Fi: Yet I aduyse the[e], thou Cullyon make hast.
1575		‘Mr. S’ Gammer Gurton’s Needle in Whitworth (1997) V ii: It was that crafty cullion Hodge.
1579		E. Hake Newes out of Powles Churchyarde n.p.: And other some so slauishe be / and cutthroate cullion léeke [Ibid.] n.p.: O carelesse cankerd slaue, / O cawty cutthroate, cullion, wretch,.
1589		A politike discourse 8: [T]he rude speeches which may be heard in the streetes [...] Cullion, Frenchdogge: which is the rethoricke of pedlers, coblers, beggars, and other people of the like stampe, and not the speeches of the honest, and ciuill sort.
1593		Shakespeare Taming of the Shrew IV ii: Such a one that leaves a gentleman, And makes a god of such a cullion.
1604		Marston Malcontent induction: Alexander was an ass to speak so well of a filthy cullion.
1613		Alcilia Philoparthens louing folly n.p.: Was not my Cooke a rash and angry Cullion, / When he should bast the meate, to bast the Scullion.
c.1629		R. Brome City Wit IV ii: Thou Cullion, could not thine own Cellar serve thee, but thou must be sneaking into Court Butteries?
1639		J. Taylor Juniper Lecture 94: I am married to a grumbling [...] Dunghill, a Cullion, a common Town Bull.
1640		R. Monro Scottish military discipline 50: I would allow [deserters] a Pinne higher on the Gallowes, then is allowed for common offences: for such Cullions that quit places for feare, not seeing their enemies, are unworthy the name of Souldiers.
1651		J. Jane Eikon aklastos 112: And could any man but he [...] defend the rascallitie in striking, and menacing the members, and [...] handling them, as cullions.
1681		A short compend or a description of the rebels in Scotland n.p.: Fled from the Bridge, their great support, / Like cowardly Cullions left their Fort.
1691		‘A Letany’ in Ebsworth Merry Drollery Compleat (1875) 176: From a griping slavish Cullion, / From the Gout, and the Strangullion [...] Libera nos Domine.
1751		W. Kenrick Falstaff’s Wedding (1766) I x: Shall a chit, a cullion, a beardless boy, presume to advise Robert Shallow, Esq?
1822		(con. early 17C) W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II 9: A man must set a piece or two sometimes, or he would be held a cullionly niggard.
1850		E.V. Kenealy Goethe: a New Pantomime in Poetical Works 2 (1878) 337: Crackhemp, Cullion, Blabber, Boor, / Vile bog-trotter. Whipper-snapper / You're a pretty god, I’m sure .
1863		Newcastle Jrnl 2 Apr. 2/6: A fellow that marries for money is the most despicable ‘cullion’ that treads God’s earth.
1868		‘Parliamentary Vade Mecum’ in Sydney Punch 14 Mar. 8/1: Substantives [...] Cullion.