bullyrook

plural bullyrooks · alternative bullyrock · alternative bully-rook

1. archaicslangA swaggering companion or fine fellow.

   "He is perhaps over-sure of himself," Alex observed easily. "So he seemed to me. A bullyrook and braggart."

   1986, Tranter, Nigel G, The Stewart trilogy, page 224

   5 more examples

   " Oh yes, you think, Mowbray," cried Guildenstern and the Gravetigger, shoring his hands into the gravelike pockets of a peacoat in which he had got ensconced, and whose bulgy character would lead one to suppose that he wore the legitimate five waistcoats under it. '* But you drink too, Mowbray, and we*re going to the Sweet Swan, remember, and if you enter into one of your Shakespearean discussions, and keep Fitz-Fergus there from getting under weigh, why, our merry host will draw the bolt upon us, my bullyrook. Even now, what with your long death, and one thing and another, we're an hour later than usual."

   1858, Allan Park Paton, The web of life, page 221

   Here we have only the modern meaning of the word, and no attempt is made to explain its history. And yet one of Dr. Latham’s quotations under “apitpat,” and another under “ bully-rook,” might have put him on the right scent. When mine host of the Garter in the Merry Wives of Windsor says, “ What says my bully-rook ? speak soberly and wisely,” he certainly does not use the word in our modern sense. [...] it is the noisy, roaring, bellowing beast, but not a cowardly beast for all that, any more than a “ bully,” or a “bullyrook” in the days of Elizabeth or James was synonymous with “ coward.”

   1864, Latham's Johnson's Dictionary, “Bully”, in The North British Review 1864-11: Vol 41 Iss 82, pages 320-321

   Nay, bullyrook why such a poder? A house divided shall not shand. So 'twere ill that a courtier strike a fool.

   1915, Bennett, E. Sydney, The Stirling Leader, page 72

   'Of all the faculties that belong to the human nature, there is none more admirable or excellent than the power of speech.' 'What says my bullyrook? Speak scholarly and wisely.’

   1921, Tomkinson W. S., “II: Practice in Speech”, in The Teachings Of English, page 19

   She is mine, and I will bring her to Ardcoll in my own time. You may sail with her if you will, and with pleasure—as a passenger. But I do not need the assistance of your ill-favoured bullyrook here

   1994, Fast and loose, page 40