bull
/bʊl/ noun, adjective, verb, proper noun
Forms bulls bulling bulled the Bull
- noun Specifically, one that is uncastrated.
- noun (loosely) Any bovine of an aggressive or long-horned breed regardless of age and sex.
- noun A male of domesticated cattle or oxen of any age.
- noun Any adult male bovine.
- noun An adult male of certain large mammals, such as whales, elephants, camels and seals.
- noun (slang, uncountable) Beef.
- noun A large, strong man.
- noun (finance) An investor who buys (commodities or securities) in anticipation of a rise in prices.
- adjective Large and strong, like a bull.
- adjective (attributive) Of large mammals, adult male. “a bull elephant”
- adjective (finance) Characterized by rising prices or belief that prices will rise. “a bull market”
- adjective Stupid.
- verb (intransitive, often with into or through) To force oneself (in a particular direction); to move aggressively. “He bulled his way in.”
- verb (agriculture, intransitive, of a cow or heifer) To be in heat; to be ready for mating with a bull.
- verb (agriculture, transitive, of a bull) To mate with (a cow or heifer).
- verb (finance, transitive) To endeavour to raise the market price of. “to bull railroad bonds”
- verb (finance, transitive) To endeavour to raise prices in. “to bull the market”
- noun A papal bull, an official document or edict from the Pope.
- noun A seal affixed to a document, especially a document from the Pope.
- verb (dated) To publish in a papal bull.
Synonyms
gentleman cow bloke boy bro broski bruh cat chap chappy chield cove covey dog [⇒ thesaurus] (slang) dawg dude fella fellow gadgie gate geezer bruiser strapper Samson bullshit Irish bull horseshit shit crap dogshit cop
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English bole, bul, bule, from a conflation of Old English bula (“bull, steer”) and Old Norse boli, both from Proto-Germanic *bulô (“bull”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰl̥no-, from *bʰel- (“to blow, swell up”). Cognate with West Frisian bolle, Dutch bul, German Low German Bull, German Bulle, Swedish bulla; also Old Irish ball (“limb”), Latin follis (“bellows, leather bag”), Albanian bolle (“testicles”), Ancient Greek φαλλός (phallós, “penis”). Of sense 11, (a man or boy), derived from the Philadelphia English pronunciation of boy, which is practically a homophone of bull.
From Middle English bulle, from Old French bulle, from Latin bulla, from Gaulish. Doublet of bull (“bubble”) and bulla.
From Middle English bull, bul, boule (“falsehood, deceit”), probably from Old French boul, boule, bole (“fraud, deceit, cunning”), from Old French bouler, boler (“to deceive, delude, lure, take in”), from Middle Low German bôlen (“to court, to woo”). Cognate with German buhlen (“to woo”). Doublet of bully.
Often reanalyzed by surface analysis to be an expurgated clipping of bullshit.
From Middle English bowle, boule, from Old French bulle, boule (“ball”), from Latin bulla (“round swelling”), of Gaulish origin. Doublet of bull (“papal bull”) and bulla.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The male of any species of cattle (Bovidæ); hence, the male of any large quadruped, as the elephant; also, the male of the whale.
- noun One who, or that which, resembles a bull in character or action.
- adjective Of or pertaining to a bull; resembling a bull; male; large; fierce. Bull bat (Zoöl.), the night hawk; --so called from the loud noise it makes while feeding on the wing, in the evening.
- verb To be in heat; to manifest sexual desire as cows do. [Colloq.]
Etymology [OE. bule, bul, bole; akin to D. bul, G. bulle, Icel. boli, Lith. bullus, Lett. bollis, Russ. vol'; prob. fr. the root of AS. bellan, E. bellow.]
Etymology [OE. bulle, fr. L. bulla bubble, stud, knob, LL., a seal or stamp: cf. F. bulle. Cf. Bull a writing, Bowl a ball, Boil, v. i.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “bull”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details