[f. BULK sb.1, giving a number of unconnected or loosely connected senses.]
1. intr. To be of bulk; to present an appearance of size; to be of weight or importance. lit. and fig.
1672. W. Carstares, in Story, Life, 27. Other things would be so far from bulking in our eyes that they would evanish and disappear.
1725. Wodrow, Corr. (1843), III. 211. Your loss … bulks not with me in comparison of that of the public.
1832. Carlyle, in Fraser’s Mag., V. 384. Any one of whom bulked much larger in the world’s eye than Johnson ever did.
1859. G. Wilson, E. Forbes, iv. 91. For us … of this generation, the years between 1831 and 1855 must bulk large.
2. To bulk (up): to swell up, rise in bulk or mass.
1551. Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., I. Def. The middle partes nother bulke vp, nother shrink down more then the bothe endes.
1601. Bp. Barlow, Defence, 116. That corne hath bulkt into a stemme, and branched out into armes … I neuer heard or read.
1883. J. Parker, in Homil. Month., Oct., 18. A few coins … shall bulk up into quite a surprising offering.
† 3. trans.< To bulk out: to swell out, stuff out.
(In quot. 1553 the word may be = BOLK, belch.)
1540. Hyrde, Vives’ Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592), F vi. One of Sathans officers, that usest … so many chosen meats at the ful, bulking out Capons.
1553. Brende, Q. Curtius, R. iij. Which violence of toung and rashenes of wordes, bulked out … was nothing elles but a declaration and token of his trayterous haste.
a. 1641. Bp. Mountagu, Acts & Mon. (1642), 457. The most ancient Churches … were … like some kinde of ships … bulked out upon both sides in the midst.
4. To pile in heaps, as fish for salting. Cf. BULK sb.1 1.
1822. G. Woodley, Scilly Isl., I. vi. 154. Pilchards are said to be bulked, when they are piled up in layers, on the pavement of the cellars.
1881. Scotsman, 12 April, 3/1. Sometimes when seals are found in great abundance, they are ‘bulked.’
5. Comm. To ascertain the bulk of.
1883. Times, 24 March, 3/5. Indian teas are ‘bulked’ by Her Majesty’s Customs—that is to say, each chest is opened and emptied, in order to ascertain the exact weight of the tea and of the package. Ibid. The Customs are not to blame for the bulking of Indian tea.
