Obs. or dial. Also 6 kull. [Var. of COLL a.1] trans. To fondle in the arms, hug.
a. 1564. Becon, Jewel of Joy, Wks. (1844), 443. To kiss and kull him as his dear darling.
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 215. Least making a wanton of my first … I should … kill it by cullyng it.
1601. Weever, Mirr. Mart., D iv. He … Hugges, culles, and clippes him in his aged armes.
1659. Rushw., Hist. Coll., I. 535. Oh! how they could hug and cull it.
b. Cull-me-to-you, rural name of the pansy.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, II. ccxcix. § 4. 704. Harts ease, Pansies, Liue in Idlenes, Cull me to you, and three faces in a hood.
1814. L. Hunt, Feast of Poets, Cuddle-me-to-you, which seems to have been altered by some nice apprehension into the less vivacious request of Cull-me-to-you.
