Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a row, an argument.

1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1879		Marshall Pomes 86: I know they had a rare old bull-and-cow one sunny day [F&H].
1884		Sporting Times 29 Nov. 1/1: Keep away from our frog and toad or there’ll be another bull and cow.
1892		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘The Rhyme of the Rusher’ in Sporting Times 29 Oct. n.p.: But a toff was mixed in a bull and cow, / And I helped him to do a bunk.
1900		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘The Babel Stakes’ Sporting Times 26 May 1/4: You would have to go far before hearing another such bull and cow, / Why, it’s just like a pantomime, sir, but there ain’t no pantomimes now.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1932		‘P.P.’ Rhy. Sl. 13: Goin’ to take a ‘ball of chalk’ up the ‘frog’ to pay the ‘Burton’ or there’ll be a ‘bull and cow’.
1938		L. Ortzen Down Donkey Row 26: Now you see why the crowds came round to help with the bull and cow and get yer away from the splits.
1943		M. Harrison Reported Safe Arrival 31: Ole Smudhe didn’ give a muck abaht no black-faced savidges arter a bull-an’-cow wiv the old gel.
1953		J. Franklyn Cockney 294: To say that Bill and his missis was having a bit of a bull and cow is more polite than to call the altercation ‘a row’.
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 295: That O’Toole, ’e’s looking for a bull-and-a-cow to end all rows, a proper bundle.
1976		(con. 1930s) J. Wolveridge Ain’t it Grand 40: The few expressions still in use such as [...] a Bull and a Cow for a row.
1981		P. Wright Cockney Dialect and Sl. 104: bull an’ cow ‘row’.
1998		R. Puxley Fresh Rabbit 90: Pantomime Cow Row.
2002		B. Kirkpatrick Wicked Cockney Rhy. Sl.

2. a loud noise.

1908		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Significant Strains’ Sporting Times 9 May 1/3: What queered the pitch for us / Was the awful ‘bull and cow’ the music made.
1938		L. Ortzen Down Donkey Row 76: You’re all makin’ a hell of a bull and cow to say yer gonna be quiet.
2002		D. Shaw ‘Dead Beard’ at www.asstr.org 🌐 You never heard such a bull and cow in all your life as Dionne screams out at the top of her hobson’s choice.