subs. (colloquial).—1. A blunder; a mistake; hence an inconsistent statement; a ludicrous contradiction, often partaking largely of the nature of a pun: the term was current long before the form IRISH BULL is met with. In French cavalry regiments portez! and remettez! are mock commands given upon the perpetration of a BULL.
1641. MILTON, An Apology for Smectymnuus, 6. But that such a poem should be toothless, I still affirm it to be a BULL, taking away the essence of that which it calls itself. For if it bite neither the persons nor the vices, how is it a satire? And if it bite either, how is it toothless?
16[?]. SELDEN, Table Talk, 96. (ARBER’S ed.). We can make no notion of it, ’tis so full of intricacy, so full of contradiction: ’tis in good earnest, as we state it, half-a-dozen BULLS one upon another.
1673. DRYDEN, The Assignation, iii., 1. Ben. Faith, lady, I could not sleep one wink, for dreaming of you. Lan. Not sleep for dreaming? When the place falls, you shall be BULL master general at Court.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. BULL, an absurd contradiction or incongruity.
1705. WARD, Hudibras Redivivus, II. I., 6. With Stale Quibbles, Puns, and BULLS.
1841. LEVER, Charles O’Malley, i. I have got into such an infernal habit of making BULLS, that I can’t write sense when I want it.
1859. H. KINGSLEY, Recollections of Geoffry Hamlyn, xxxix. He was telling the most outrageous of Irish stories, and making, on purpose, the most outrageous of IRISH BULLS.
2. (thieves’).—A crown; 5/—: formerley BULL’S EYE (q.v.): see RHINO.
1819. J. H. VAUX, A Vocabulary of the Flash Language. BULL, a crown, or five shillings.
1823. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. Nibble. I only nibbled half a BULL for my regulars.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I. 232. List of patterers’ words. BULL, a crown.
1852. DICKENS, Bleak House, xlvi. Four half-BULLS, wot you may call half-crowns.
1857. Notes and Queries, 2 S., 4 July. And therefore much as a BULL (or a hog) stand arbitrarily for a five-shilling-piece, half-a-BULL for half-a-crown, a bob for a shilling, a tanner for sixpence, etc., with equal propriety might a plum stand for £100,000.
1889. Answers, July 27, 136, 2. Once found, the ‘lurker’ is pretty sure to draw a BULL (five shillings), or even a ‘counter’ (pound).
1901. Referee, 14 April, 9, 2. I am not versed in the technicalities of the trade, so I don’t quite know to what portion of their task such remarks as ‘second,’ ‘five to one,’ ‘odds on,’ ‘two non-starters and a third,’ ‘a deaner each way and all on for the four-thirty,’ and ‘half a BULL out on the day’ referred. I strolled along.
3. (stock exchange).—Originally a speculative purchase for a rise; i.e., a man would agree to buy stock at a future day at a stated price, with no intention of taking it up, but trusting to the market advancing in value to make the transaction profitable: the reverse of BEAR (q.v.): now more frequently applied to the person who tries to enhance the value of stocks by speculative purchases or otherwise. Also as verb and adjective. Fr. a haussier; in Berlin liebhaber; and in Vienna contremine. Hence STALE BULL = stock held over for a long period with profit.
1721. CIBBER, The Refusal, i. Gran. And all this out of Change-Alley? Wit. Every Shilling, Sir; all out of Stocks, Puts, BULLS, Rams, Bears, and Bubbles.
1768. FOOTE, The Devil upon Two Sticks, A mere BULL and bear booby; the patron of lame ducks, brokers, and fraudulent foot bankrupts.
1772. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 281. Ye Grecian BULLS and Trojan bears.
1774. COLMAN, The Man of Business, IV., i., Wks. (1777) II., 179. My young master is the BULL, and Sir Charles is the bear. He agreed for stock, expecting it to be up at three hundred by this time; but, lack-a-day, sir, it has been falling ever since.
1817. SCOTT, Rob Roy, iv. The hum and bustle which his approach was wont to produce among the BULLS, bears, and brokers of Stock Alley.
1845. New York Tribune, 10 Dec. There was a sauve qui peut movement to-day in the stock-market; and the clique of BULLS, finding it impossible to stem the rush, gave up the attempt to sustain the market, and let things go down with a run…. Such a state of the market as is now exhibited is nearly as bad for the bears as the BULLS.
1860. PEACOCK, Gryll Grange, xviii. In Stock Exchange slang, BULLS are speculators for a rise, bears for a fall.
1881. Mark Lane Express, Aug. 8, 1085. The speculative movement which has, so far, exerted a BULL influence on the maize market.
4. (common).—See quot.
1887. G. R. SIMS, How the Poor Live, 148. In these places, too, the lodgers divide their food frequently, and a man, seeing a neighbour without anything, will hand him his teapot, and say, ‘Here you are, mate; here’s a BULL for you.’ A ‘BULL’ is a teapot with the leaves left in for a second brew.
5. (prison).—Rations of meat: an allusion to its toughness; also generic for meat: Fr. bidoche.
1883. Echo, Jan. 25, 2, 3. Thus from the French ‘bouilli’ we probably get the prison slang term BULL for a ration of meat.
6. (American).—A locomotive: also BULLGINE.
1897. BARRÈRE and LELAND, A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant, I., 185. ‘On the Trail.’ Had just touched a bloke’s leather, as the BULL bellowed for the last time.
7. (Winchester College).—Cold beef, introduced at breakfast about 1873: see sense 5.
8. (old).—See quot.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. BULL … also false Hair worn (formerly much) by Women.
9. (old).—A bubble.
d. 1602. A. NOWELL, Liturgical Services, 301. This life is as a vapour, as a shadow passing and fleeing away, as a fading flower, as a BULL rising on the water.
10. (common).—A broken-winded horse; a ROARER (q.v.).
Verb. (American: Dartmouth College).—1. To recite badly; to make a poor recitation.
2. (venery).—To copulate: see GREENS and RIDE: a cow maris appetens is said to be BULLED. Hence TOWN-BULL = a whoremaster (B. E.).
TO TAKE THE BULL BY THE HORNS (or TAIL), verb. phr. (colloquial).—To meet a difficulty with resolution or courage.
1835. R. H. DANA, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, ii. I felt tempted to tell him that I had rather wait till after breakfast; but I knew that I must TAKE THE BULL BY THE HORNS, and that if I showed any sign of want of spirit or of backwardness, I should be ruined at once.
TO TRUST ONE AS FAR AS ONE COULD FLING A BULL BY THE TAIL, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To have no confidence whatever.
1853. C. READE, Gold! i. Levi. This is not enmity, sir; it is but a matter of profit and loss, trust me. Mea. I’d TRUST YOU AS FAR AS I COULD FLING A BULL BY THE TAIL!
TO BULL THE CASK (or BARREL), verb. phr. (nautical).—To pour water into an empty rum cask to keep the wood moist and prevent leakage; the water after some time is intoxicating, and the authorities, not looking with much favour upon wholesale brewing of grog, sometimes use salt water as a deterrant, though even this SALT WATER BULL as it is called, has often proved too attractive for seamen; hence to BULL A TEAPOT, COFFEEPOT, etc.; that is, after the first brew has been exhausted, to add water and make a second brew.
1824. COCHRANE, Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey through Russia and Siberian Tartary, 225. My liquor was at end from the effects of a very common sort of leak—it had been tapped too often. I could do nothing but BULL THE BARREL, that is, put a little water into it, and so preserve at least the appearance of vookey.
1834. MARRYAT, Jacob Faithful, xx. Why, Jacob, a BULL means putting a quart or two of water into a cask which has had spirits in it.
TO LOOK LIKE BULL-BEEF, verb. phr. (old).—‘To look big and grim’ (B. E.).
TO SHOW THE BULL HORN, verb. phr. (old).—To make a show of resistance.
HE MAY BEAR A BULL THAT HATH BORNE A CALF, phr. (old).—After little, big things are possible.
A BULL IN A CHINA SHOP, subs. phr. (common).—A simile of reckless destruction.
THE BULL-LION, subs. phr. (American).—John Bull; England [a pun on John Bull with an eye on the Lion of England].
1862. New-York Tribune, 1 June. This profuse magnanimous Lion, or BULL LION, [talks as if it were glory to adore guineas, and shame to be fond of dollars.—As if, BULL LION, as he is, he would not give Magna Charta, Milton, Shakspeare, and even Bacon, for the convenience and profit of a single cotton crop.
