"Pull any"

[Jim Walker]

>I ran into the phrase "he can't pull any" today, meaning, he cannot attract
women.
>It's a Britishism, I think, according to the user, with "birds" or "chicks"
sometimes
>following.

It is indeed common in British "lad" culture, of which I am an occasional
member, on my visits home. "bird" is much more common than "chick", which is
perceived by us, rightly or wrongly, as an Americanism. "totty" is another
word used in this context, though it's a mass noun: "there's a lot of totty
in the pub tonight". A strikingly attractive young lady on whom one may be
inclined to focus one's attentions might be lovingly described as "a good
piece of totty". (the word can also be used for men)

British gentlemen who go out for an evening with the avowed attention of
chatting up women describe themselves as "going on the pull", as do women
who are on the look out for men. About eight years ago, there was a vogue
for saying that a person was "sharking", or "on the shark", which phrases
were often accompanied by a hand placed upright on the head to represent a
shark's fin. "Sharking" was the same as "being on the pull". I don't know if
this is still current, because I left England at that time. The image, I
guess, is of a shark circling its prey and going in for the kill, though why
a shark and not some other predator, I do not know.

Jim, a happily married non-sharker