Obs. slang. [Perh. f. BULK sb.2 + -ER1, with the meaning ‘one who sleeps on a bulk,’ ‘one who steals from a bulk’; cf. Johnson, Savage, Wks. (1787), III. 325 ‘On a bulk, in a cellar, or in a glass-house, among thieves and beggars, was to be found the Author of The Wanderer.’]
A low-lived person; a petty thief; a street-walker, prostitute. Also = BULK sb.3
1673. R. Head, Canting Acad., 99. The Bulker jostles them up, and the File doth the work.
1678. Four for Penny, in Harl. Misc., IV. 147 (D.). He is … the common fender of all bulkers and shop lifts in the town.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Bulker, one that lodges all Night on Shop-windows and Bulkheads.
1690. Shadwell, Am. Bigot, III. 265. Her mother sells fish, and she is little better than a bulker.
a. 1705. T. Brown, in J. Ashton, Soc. Life in Q. Anne’s Reign, 83. In comparison of whom the common Bulkers, and Pickpockets, are a very honest Society.
1790. Bailey, Bulker, one that would lie down on a Bulk to any one; a common Jilt; a whore.
