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cully. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
cully, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
cully in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
cully you have here. The definition of the word
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cully, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
Uncertain. Short for cullion? Compare Irish cuallaí (“companion”)
Pronunciation
Noun
cully (plural cullies)
- (archaic) A person who is easily tricked or imposed on; a dupe, a gullible person.
1911 March 20 (Gregorian calendar), , “MONDAY, March 9, 1910–1911”, in The Spectator, number 9; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, , volume I, New York, N.Y.: D Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:I have learned that I am not the first cully whom she has passed upon for a countess.
2012, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex, Penguin, published 2013, page 158:One was a fascination with street-walkers and courtesans as self-confident entrepreneurs, able to outwit their simple cullies.
- (slang) A companion.
- (historical, archaic) A male client of a prostitute; a john, a gonk.
2006, Laura J. Rosenthal, Infamous Commerce: Prostitution in Eighteenth-Century British Literature and Culture, Cornell University Press, page 2:The assumption tends to be the opposite: Whores constantly seek sexual encounters to fulfill their burning desires and also sometimes manage to wheedle gold out of their cullies.
Derived terms
Verb
cully (third-person singular simple present cullies, present participle cullying, simple past and past participle cullied)
- To trick, to impose on, to dupe.
Descendants