Bull'ion, n.

(bul'/yun), n. [O. Eng. bullyon, a hook used for fastening the dress, button, stud, an embossed ornament of various kinds, e. g., on the cover of a book, on bridles or poitrels, for purses, for breeches and doublets, L. Lat. bullio, the swelling of boiling water, a mass of gold or silver, Gallic billon; bullionium, a certain weight (1306), billis, a brass coin, from Lat. bulla, any object swelling up and thus becoming round, any thing rounded by art, boss, stud, bubble.]

1Sense 1. Uncoined gold or silver in the mass.

☞ Properly, the precious metals are called bullion, when smelted and not perfectly refined; or when refined, but in bars, ingots, or in any form uncoined, as in plate. But the word is often used to denote gold and silver, both coined and uncoined, when reckoned by weight and in mass, including especially foreign, or uncurrent, coin.

2Sense 2. Base or uncurrent coin. [Obs.]

And those which eld's strict doom did disallow, And damn for bullion, go for current now. Sylvester.

3Sense 3. Showy metallic ornaments, as of copper, on bridles, or copper lace, tassels, buttons, &c., in imitation of gold. [Obs.]

While you do eat and lie about the town here, And cozen in your bullions. B. Jonson.