cullion
(ˈkʌljən)
Forms: 4 coillon, coylon, culyon, 4–5 colyoun, -on, coyllon, 6 colion, collion, -an, coulion, coillen, 7 cullian, culion, cullyen, cullen, 6–9 cullion.
[a. F. couillon = Pr. colho, Sp. cojon, It. coglione, Romanic deriv. of L. cōleus, culleus bag, testicle, a. Gr. κόλεος sheath.]
† 1. A testicle. Obs.
| c 1386 Chaucer Pard. T. 624, I wolde I hadde thy coillons [v.r. coylons, colyounnys, coyllons, culyons] in myn hond. 1481 Caxton Reynard (Arb.) 22 His ryght colyon or balock stone. 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. lvi. 218 His rootes..are like to a payre of stones or Cullions. 1611 Cotgr., Animelles, the stones, cods, or cullions of Lambes, etc. 1737 Ozell Rabelais ii. xiv. 110. |
† 2. As a term of contempt: A base, despicable, or vile fellow; a rascal. Obs. Cf. F. coïon, coyon (Cotgr.).
| 15.. Peebles to Play, Where is yon cullion knave? 1575 J. Still Gammer Gurton v. ii, It was that crafty cullion Hodge. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, i. iii. 43 Away, base Cullions. 1617 Collins Def. Bp. Ely 553 Thou shalt be censured for a cullian and a wretch. a 1652 Brome City Wit iv. ii, Thou Cullion, could not thine own cellar serve thee, but thou must be sneaking into Court butteries? 1843 Lytton Last Bar. i. xi, Out on ye, cullions and bezonians! |
† 3. Fortif. ‘That part of a bulwarke which enginers call the pome, the gard, the shoulder or eares to couer the casamats’ (Florio 1611, s.v. Orecchione).
| 1589 P. Ive Fortif. 12 Which cullion or orechion may be made longer and shorter according to the will of the workman. |
4. pl. A popular name of plants of the genus Orchis (or allied genera), from the form of the tubers or ‘roots’.
| 1611 Cotgr., Couillon de chien, Dogs-stones, Dogs cullions. 1640 Parkinson Theat. Bot. ix. 1341 Satyrion and Orchis. Cullions or Stones. Ibid. xiii. 1354 Sweete Cullions. 1776 J. Lee Introd. Bot. (ed. 3) 330 Soldier's Cullions, Orchis. 1879 Prior Plant-n. (ed. 3) 60. |
b. The paired tubers of Orchis.
| 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 115/1 Cullions, or Stone-roots [are] round roots, whether single, double, or trebble. 1721 in Bailey; and in later Dicts. |
5. Comb., as cullion-like adj. (sense 2); † cullion-head (Fortif.).
| 1591 Harington Orl. Fur. xxv. xxv, For what could be more cullenlike or base? 1601 Deacon & Walker Spirits & Divels To Rdr. 10 To desist from those cullion-like courses. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Cullion-head, see Bastian. |
¶ Used by confusion for cullin = culling.
| c 1640 J. Smyth Lives Berkeleys (1883) I. 156 The eldest of the sheep were drawne out as Cullions. |
[Cf. quot. 1652 s.v. culling1 3, and 1887 S. Cheshire Gloss., Cullins, the worst sheep of a flock.]