or Bulk, subs. (old).—1.  ‘One that lodges all Night on Shop-windows and Bulkheads.’ (B. E.) [BULK = the stall (or window sill) of a shop].

1

  1598.  FLORIO, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v., balcone.

2

  2.  A low prostitute: lit. one with no settled home who slept on a ‘bulk,’ a kind of sill projecting from a window: see TART.

3

  1670.  E. RAVENSCROFT, The Careless Lovers. She must on with the striped semar and turn BULKER—at which trade I hope to see you suddenly.

4

  1691.  SHADWELL, The Scowerers, Act i., Sc. 1. Every one in a petticoat is thy mistress, from humble BULKER to haughty countess.

5

  1690.  D’URFEY, Collin’s Walk through London and Westminster, 4.

        For all your majors scarce will make,
Me thinks, what’s past for Virtues sake;
Or that this BULKER of the town,
Came only here to rub ye down.

6

  1728.  BAILEY, Dictionarium Britannicum, s.v. BULKER, a Common Jilt; a Whore.—Canting term. [In a later edition (1790) he adds ‘one who would lay down on a bulk to anyone.’]

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