slang or colloq. Now rare. [Orig. slang or rogues’ cant, of uncertain origin.
Connection has been suggested with CULLION or its Ital. cognate coglione ‘a noddie, a foole, a patch, a dolt; a cuglion, a gull, a meacocke’ (Florio). Leland thinks it of Gypsy origin, comparing Sp. Gypsy chulai man, Turkish Gypsy khulai gentleman.]
1. One who is cheated or imposed upon (e.g., by a sharper, strumpet, etc.); a dupe, gull; one easily deceived or taken in; a silly fellow, simpleton. (Much in use in the 17th c.)
1664. Butler, Hud., II. ii. 123/781. Women, that … Brought in … Their Husbands Cullies, and Sweet-hearts.
1687. Sedley, Bellamira, I. i. I’ll … shew her I am not such a cully as she takes me for.
a. 1720. J. Hughes, in Duncombe’s Lett. (1773), III. App. xxxvii. The wit is always the cully of the heart.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pic. (1779), II. lvi. 147. The French syren was baulked in her design upon her English cully.
1833. Carlyle, Misc. (1872), V. 89. Cullies, the easy cushion on which Knaves and Knavesses repose, have at all times existed.
1881. Swinburne, in Fortn. Rev., Feb., 133. The whimper of a cheated cully.
attrib. 1678. Butler, Hud., III. Heroic. Epist., 168. Why should you … B’ allow’d to put all tricks upon Our Cully-Sex, and we use none?
1702. De Foe, Reform. Manners, I. 308. The Cully Merchant.
2. A man, fellow; a companion, mate.
1676. Warn. for Housekeepers, 5. If the cully nap us.
1861. Mayhew, Lond. Labour (ed. 2), III. 57 (Hoppe). The showman inside the frame says … ‘Culley, how are you getting on?’
1888. New York Mercury (Farmer, Americanisms). What’s yer hurry, cully?
