bully¹ n also bulley. Cp EDD ~ sb², ³ D Co [applied to various short, round objects] for sense 1.
   1 A bluff, two-masted decked boat used on the northeast coast and Labrador for fishing and carrying fish; JACK¹. See also bully boat below.
   [1888] 1897 Nfld Law Reports 310 ... and seeing the plaintiffs come to his net in their bully. 1895 Christmas Review 18 The new boats ... were to be ordinary 'bullies,' such as all the fishermen use in pursuing their ordinary avocation on the fishing grounds. 1913 Christmas Chimes 25 The harbor ... of Bonavista was, at this time, filled with schooners, some of them fishing vessels with their full supplies for Labrador, fishing boats of all sizes from the 20 qtl jack to the bully and skiff of the smaller planters. 1936 SMITH 80 [At Holton] a number of people fished from Brigus ... each with a cod seine and three cod traps, also four 'bulleys' or large boats with gaff sails, expressly for fishing after the trapping was over. T 183/5-65 Then we'd take the fish aboard the bully and come home. 1977 Decks Awash vi (3), p. 50 Before my father died I used to go across the Bay fishing with him in a 'bully,' and after he died my uncle took over the bully and we went across the Bay for three summers. 1980 COX 22 They went in "bullies," which were small fishing boats with a 20 foot keel, rigged with a driver, a foresail and a jib.
   2 Attrib, comb bully boat: see sense 1 above.
   1904 Nfld Qtly Dec, p. 17 Nearly all my inspection and visitation had to be done in bully-boats, jacks and whale boats. 1909 GRENFELL2 (ed) 306 The old two-handed jacks, or bully boats, which, in the autumn months, used to venture far off from the land with hand-lines, now lie rotting on the rocks at all the harbours on the coast. 1927 DOYLE (ed) 7 "All Around Green Island Shore": I have as staunch a bully boat / As ever rode the ground. M 69-17 The bully boat was a fishing craft in the early days [at Elliston]. These boats were about 25 to 30 feet long with a capacity for about 30 quintals of fish. They had two masts and were equipped with a mainsail, foresail, topsail, and sometimes a jib.
   bully man: principal hand aboard a decked vessel or 'bully' used in the cod-fishery.
   1936 SMITH 74 When we arrived in the harbour the bulley man was there for his second load. We discharged the bulley and finished loading her from the bag. T 31/2-64 What they call bully man is one man in the skiff for to do the work. [He] had to dip in all that fish aboard to the splitters.

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