4. (nautical.)—See Bull the cask or barrel.
5. (common.)—Explained by quotation.
1887. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, p. 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.
6. (thieves'.)—Prison rations of meat, an allusion to its toughness; also generally used for meat without any reference to its being either tough or tender. A French equivalent is la bidoche. [Its derivation is suggested in the following quot.]
1883. Echo, Jan. 25, p. 2, col. 3. Thus from the French 'bouilli' we probably get the prison slang term bull for a ration of meat.
7. (American.)—A locomotive; the word is sometimes lengthened into bullgine.
8. (Winchester College.)—Cold beef, introduced at breakfast about 1873.
Verb (American University).—At Dartmouth College to recite badly; to make a poor recitation. [From the substantive bull, a blunder or contradiction, or from the use of the word as a prefix, signifying large, lubberly, blundering.]
Stale bull, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Stock held over for a long period with profit.
Bull and Cow, subs. (rhyming slang).—A row.
Bull-Bait, verb (? nonce word).—To bully; hector; badger. [Clearly a figurative usage of the legitimate word.]
1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. xviii., p. 82. 'Which I meantersay,' cried Joe, 'that if you come into my place bull-baiting and badgering me, come out!'
Bull-Beef, subs. (old).—A frequently recurring term of contempt. Prisoners apply it to the hard, stringy meat supplied to them, and formerly the expression was in general use. 'As ugly as bull-beef'; 'as big as bull-beef'; 'go and sell yourself for bull-beef'; were common colloquialisms at the end of the last and the beginning of the present century. Sometimes contracted into bull. Cf., Bully beef.
1579. Gosson, Apol. of the Schoole of Abuse, p. 64 (Arber). I vnderstand they are all in a fustian fume. . . . They haue eaten bul-bief, and threatned highly too put water in my woortes whensoeuer they catche me.
1607. Rowlands, Diogines Lanthorne, p. 8 (H. Cl. Repr., 1873). How lookes yonder fellow? what's the matter with him trow? has a eaten bul-beefe? there's a lofty slaue indeede, hee's in the altitudes.
1738-1819. Wolcot ('P. Pindar'), Rights of Kings, Ode I., in wks. (Dublin, 1795), vol. II., p. 219. The Cooks, Bluff on th' occasion, put on bull's-beef looks.
1782. Wolcot, Lyric Odes, No. 3, in wks. (1809) I., 62.
Yet thou may'st bluster like bull-beef so big.
1860. Haliburton ('Sam Slick'), The Season Ticket, x. Which look as cheap as bull-beef at one cent a pound.
1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, p. 524. To look as big as bull-beef. To look stout and hearty, as if fed on bull-beef. Bull-beef was formerly recommended for making men strong and muscular.
1888. Ashton, Mod. Street Ballads, p. 61.
For soon he will his trial take, And hard bull-beef be munching.
