[prob. a. F. bouillon (see BULLION1) in senses derived from that of ‘bubble’: ‘1 Plis bouffants qu’on fait à certains vêtements; 2. Fil d’or ou d’argent tourné en rond’ (Littré).]
† 1. More fully bullion-hose: Trunk-hose, puffed out at the upper part, in several folds. Obs. Cf. BOUILLON 4.
1594. Gesta Gray., in Nichols, Progr. Q. Eliz., III. 341. A bullion-hose is best to goe a woeinge in; for ’tis full of promisinge promontories.
1616. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, III. iii. Not, While you doe eate, and lie, about the towne, here; And coozen i’ your bullions.
1622. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, IV. iv. His baster’d bullions In a long stock ty’d up.
1632. Massinger & Field, Fatal Dowry, II. ii. You shall see him … at noon in the bullion, in the evening in Quirpo.
2. a. An ornamental fringe made of twists of gold or silver thread. b. A single twist of such fringe. Also attrib. [Prob. now often associated with BULLION2 precious metal.]
1662. Fuller, Worthies, I. 247. Bullion, like other Lace, costing nothing safe a little thread.
1702. J. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., II. III. vi. (1743), 416. None might wear silk or costly furring … without license from the king, nor no other persons wear broidery, pearls, or bullion.
1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, I. 277. All in a blaze of scarlet and bullion and steel.
1879. Uniform Reg., in Navy List, July (1882), 488/2. Epaulettes.—Bullions to be two and three-quarter inches in length and one and one-eighth inch in circumference.
1832. Athenæum, No. 221, 42. Richly trimmed with embroidery and bullion fringes.
