Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the vagina; joc. euph. coined by John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester (1647–80).

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 50: burette, f. The female pudendum; ‘the bull’s-eye’.
c.1900		‘Ramrod’ Nocturnal Meeting 150: The sweeping thighs, and the darkling bull’s-eyes beneath.

2. a crown or five-shilling (25p) piece [later use is SE].

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1703		Hell Upon Earth 5: Bull’s-Eye, a Crown.
1708		J. Hall Memoirs (1714) 11: Bull’s-Eye, a Crown.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 203: Bulls-eye, a crown or five shillings.
1725		New Canting Dict.
1747		Life and Character of Moll King 12: She flash’d half a Slat, a Bull’s-Eye, and some other rum Slangs.
c.1750–1882		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ A Dict. of the Turf, The Ring, The Chase, etc. 19: A crown was formerly ‘a bull’s-eye’.
1834		Chelmsford Chron. 31 Jan. 4/7: The young man charged with robbing [...] Wm. Polley of a £5 note, two half sovereigns, and some bull’s eyes.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 37: Young Alf slashed down a bull’s eye for the drink.

3. a large, round sweet.

1825		W. Hone Every-day Bk I 51: Hard-bake, brandy-balls, and bulls’-eyes.
1831		T. Hood ‘Sonnet’ Works (1862) II 360: I thrilled when lollipops were hawked about; / How pleased to compass hard-bake or bull’s-eye.
1857		T. Hughes Tom Brown’s School–Days 72: Where huge bull’s-eyes, and unctuous toffy might be procured.
1867		R. Broughton Cometh up as a Flower 394: Like little naughty boys whose pockets have been found bulging with [...] the succulent bull’s-eye in church.
1890		‘F. Anstey’ Voces Populi 74: Look, his little cheek is quite bulged out. I shouldn’t wonder if he had a bull’s-eye in it.
1906		E. Pugh Spoilers 134: ‘Why,’ I cried, ‘why do I always accept a bull’s eye [...] when some little toddler offers me one?’.
1910		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘The Sweetshop Girl’ Sporting Times 5 Mar. 1/4: Scored a ‘bull’s-eye,’ did that sweetshop girl.
1917		Liverpool Echo 2 Aug. 4/6: Bull’s-Eyes for Britons, Sweet Manufacturer’s Evidence at Tribunal. [...] — What is the nature of your supply to the Army? — Bull’s Eyes.
1926		M. Forrest Hibiscus Heart 238: Arline [...] proffered a bull’s-eye.
1932		F. Jennings Tramping with Tramps 180: Some nice bull’s-eyes.
1941		J. Cary Herself Surprised (1955) 235: I always had a chocolate bar, or a paper of bulls-eyes in my pocket.
1989		(con. 1930s) A. Higgins ‘Sodden Fields’ in Helsingør Station and Other Departures 49: My younger brother and I sucked bull’s-eyes.

4. a bull’s-eye lantern.

1838		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 13 Jan. 85: The voice issued from a policeman, the light from his bull’s-eye.
1840		R.H. Dana Two Years before the Mast (1992) 184: The forecastle [...] was large, tolerably well lighted by bulls-eyes.
1849		Sam Sly 6 Jan. 4/1: [T]hat shabby-looking lamp over the door of his house [...] is not much bigger than a police-man’s ‘bull's eye’ .
1850		J. Hannay Singleton Fontenoy II 31: An odd little place lighted by a ‘bull’s-eye’.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 5: Their blue and red bulls’-eyes look like huge gems.
1869		Sportsman (London) 17 Nov. 2/1: Notes on News [...] The constable came up to them, and putting his ‘bull’s-eye’ in their faces, called them disgusting names.
1871		Galaxy (N.Y.) Aug. 170: ‘This bullseye is an old acquaintance here,’ said the detective, ‘and as its coming most always means “somebody wanted,” you see how they hide.’.
1883		J. Payn Thicker than Water I 111: He could open his eyes to some purpose, when their effect was that of a policeman’s bull’s-eye suddenly turned on a detected thief.
1886		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 17 Apr. 2/4: There were twenty three pieces in the [burglar’s] kit [...] a dark lantern or ‘bull’s eye’.
1898		E. Pugh ‘The Inevitable Thing’ in Keating Working Class Stories of the 1890s (1971) 123: And no policeman’s bull’s-eye ever shines down here.
1900		Marvel XIV:344 June 14: One of the constable’s bull’s-eyes displayed a rent in his overcoat-sleeve.
1910		Marvel 22 Jan. 3: Opening the shutter of his bullseye, he flashed the light on him.
1917		‘Henry Handel Richardson’ Aus. Felix (1971) 218: The well-meaning constable who [...] turned on his bull’s eye for you in a fog.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 334: This copper come [...] testing the doors and putting his bullseye on the locks.
1952		C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 320: Bull’s-eye, A flashlight which throws a thin beam of light.
1960		(con. 1950-1960) R.A. Freeman Dict. Inmate Sl. (Walla Walla, WA) 20: Bull’s eye – a beam of light from a flashlight.

5. a thick, old-fashioned watch.

1832		Spirit of the Times (NY) 4 Feb. 2/4: I’ll bet you this ere watch against your bulls-eye.
1833		J. Neal Down-Easters I 78: Lugging out a heavy silver watch [...] a genuine bull’s eye with a huge copper logging chain.
1860		O.W. Holmes Professor at the Breakfast Table 39: A friend of mine had a watch given him [...] a ‘bull’s eye,’ with a loose silver case.
1892		J.C. Duval Young Explorers 217: As soon as Uncle Seth had finished his yarn, he slowly extracted his big bullseye silver watch from his fob.