Nonsense or falsehood, especially when blatant or offensive; empty, insincere or bombastic speech or behaviour; tedious attention to detail. The term has become particularly widespread since the late 1960s, before which it was more often heard in American speech than British (where it was, however, a well-known part of armed-service language).

'I'm not allowed to talk about it …[1] Dahl grumbled from his Buckingham- shire home. It has something to do with security or some such bullshit.'

(Evening Standard, 8 September 1989).