gull
/ˈɡʌl/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms gulls gulling gulled gool
- noun A seabird of the genus Larus or of the subfamily Larinae.
- noun Any of various pierid butterflies of the genus Cepora.
- noun (slang) A cheating trick; a fraud.
- noun A stupid animal.
- noun One easily cheated; a dupe.
- noun (obsolete, Oxford University slang) A swindler or trickster.
- verb To deceive or cheat.
- verb (US, slang) To mislead.
- verb (US, slang) To trick and defraud.
- verb (dialectal) To flatter, wheedle.
- noun (dialectal) A breach or hole made by the force of a torrent; fissure, chasm.
- noun (dialectal) A channel made by a stream; a natural watercourse; running water.
- verb (dialectal) To sweep away by the force of running water; to carve or wear into a gully.
- proper noun A surname.
- noun (soccer) A player, supporter or other person connected with Torquay United Football Club.
Synonyms
mew seabird seagull seamew chump fool mark patsy fall guy sucker soft touch mug sea gull befool dupe slang cod put on take in put one over put one across
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English gulle, from a Brythonic language (compare Breton gouelan, Welsh gwylan, and Cornish golan), from Proto-Brythonic *gwuɨlann, from Proto-Celtic *weilannā (“seagull”).
Cognate with Old Irish foílenn, Scottish Gaelic faoileag. Compare French goéland, a borrowing from Breton. Eclipsed Middle English lare (borrowed from Latin larus) and Middle English mewe (from Old English mæw).
Perhaps from an obsolete term gull (“to swallow, guzzle”), from Middle English golen (“to make swallowing motions, gape”), from Middle English gole (“throat”).
From Middle English gole (“a whirlpool, narrow inlet of the sea, ditch or stream”), from Middle Low German goel, gȫl, gȫle (“swamp, marshy lowland”), related to Old Dutch gulla (“pool, puddle”), Old French goille (“pool, puddle, pond”), all ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *goli, *golljā (“puddle”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *guljaz, *guljǭ.
From gull, from sea gull. In reference to the seagulls found in Torquay, a coastal town.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To deceive; to cheat; to mislead; to trick; to defraud.
- noun A cheating or cheat; trick; fraud. Shak.
- noun One easily cheated; a dupe. Shak.
- noun One of many species of long-winged sea birds of the genus Larus and allied genera.
Etymology [Prob. fr. gull the bird; but cf. OSw. gylla to deceive, D. kullen, and E. cullibility.]
Etymology [Of Celtic origin; cf. Corn. gullan, W. gwylan.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “gull”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details