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 To go or be on a bulge, verbal phr. (American).—To drink to excess.

To GET THE BULGE ON ONE, verbal phr. (American mining slang).—To obtain an advantage over; an equivalent is to get THE DROP ON ONE.

1869. S. L. Clemens ('Mark Twain'), Innocents at Home, p. 18. Well, you've rather got the bulge on me. Or maybe we've both got the bulge, somehow.

1885. Household Words, Oct. 10, p. 466. 'Smart chap, that Jacob, for a nig!' remarked he, as we told him the outlines of our story. 'I guess now he's had the bulge on you pretty considerable this trip.'

1888. American Humorist, May 12. 'Pop! are you up there ?' 'Yes, my son.' 'I saw he had the bulge on you and I got the gun and dropped him!' 'Right, my boy. That's what I was praying for.'

Bulger, adj. (common).—Large; synonymous with buster (q.v.).

Bulk, subs. (old).—See quots.—See also File and Bulker, sense 2.

1674. R. Head, Canting Acad., 35. Bulk and File. The one jostles you, whilst the other picks your pocket.

1725. New Cant. Dict. Bulk, an assistant to a File or Pickpocket, who jostles a Person up against the Wall, while the other picks his Pocket.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Bulk and file, two pickpockets; the bulk jostles the party to be robbed, and the file does the business.

Bulker, subs. (old).—1. A prostitute of a low type—generally one who had no settled home; one who slept on a 'bulk,' a kind of sill projecting from a window. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.

1691. Shadwell, Scowerers, Act i., Sc. 1. 'Every one in a petticoat is thy mistress, from humble bulker to haughty countess.'

1728. Baily. 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.]

2. (old.)—A thief. Cf.,Bulk.

1669. Nicker Nicked, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), II., 108. Bulker occurs in a list of names of thieves.

1678. Four for a Penny, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), IV., 147. He is the treasurer of the thieves' exchequer, the common fender of all bulkers and shoplifts in the town.

Bulky, subs. (provincial).—A police constable. Said to be a northern term. For synonyms, see Beak.

1821. Edinburgh Mag., August, p. 156. This enterprising ruffian boasts of his success in deceiving the bulkies on a search, by concealing his stolen notes in the cape of his coat.

1841. Lytton, Night and Morning, bk. V., ch. ii. 'Inquiries about your respectability would soon bring the bulkies about me.'

Adj. (Winchester College).—Rich or generous, or both. The opposite of brum (q.v.).

Bull, subs. (colloquial.)—1. Formerly a blunder or mistake; now generally understood as an inconsistent statement; a ludicrous contradiction, often partaking largely of the nature of a pun. [Bull in M.E. = to befool; to mock.] The term was current long before the form Irish bull is met with.

1642. Milton, Apol. for Smect., § 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?

1673. Dryden, The Assignation, Act iii., Sc. 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.