d. 1631. Drayton, The Mooncalf (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, iv., 126). Wallowing she lay, like to a boist’rous hulk Dropsied with humours.
1698. Ward, London Spy, Pt. xiv., p. 324. Up in the Chimney Corner sat a great hulking Fellow.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th Ed.). Hulk (s.) … also a lazy, dronish fellow. [[376]]
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hulkey, or Hulking, a great hulkey fellow, an overgrown clumsy lout, or fellow.
1858. G. Eliot, Mr. Gilfil’s Love-Story, ch. ii. When you’ve got … some great hulky fellow for a husband, who swears at you and kicks your children.
1870. Chambers’s Journal, 9 July, p 447. He sees a slouching, shambling, hulk of a fellow standing listlessly in a doorway.
1871. G. Eliot, Middlemarch, ch. lvi. I want to go first and have a round with that hulky fellow who turned to challenge me.
1883. A. Dobson, Old-World Idylls, p. 164. I’d like to give that hulking brute a hit—Beating his horse in such a shameful way!
1893. National Observer, 29 July, p. 267, col. 2. The absolute ascendancy exercised by a small but brilliant member … over a hulking Junior.
Verb (colloquial).—To hang about; to mooch (q.v.).