Wiktionary

bull

See also: Bull and Bull.

EnglishEdit

 
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A Charolais bull

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /ˈbʊl/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʊl

Etymology 1Edit

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”), Thracian βόλινθος (vólinthos, “wild bull”), Macedonian вол (vol, "ox"), Serbo-Croatian and Slovene vol ("ox"), Albanian buall (“buffalo”) or related bolle (“testicles”), Ancient Greek φαλλός (phallós, “penis”).

NounEdit

 
A statue of a Spanish fighting bull or toro de lidia in Tordesillas, Valladolid, Spain

bull (countable and uncountable, plural bulls)

  1. An adult male of domesticated cattle or oxen.
    1. Specifically, one that is uncastrated.
  2. A male of domesticated cattle or oxen of any age.
  3. Any adult male bovine.
  4. An adult male of certain large mammals, such as whales, elephants, camels and seals.
  5. A large, strong man.
  6. (finance) An investor who buys (commodities or securities) in anticipation of a rise in prices.
    • 1821, Bank of England, The Bank - The Stock Exchange - The Bankers ... (page 64)
      This accompt has been made to appear a bull accompt, i.e. that the bulls cannot take their stock. The fact is the reverse; it is a bear accompt, but the bears, unable to deliver their stock, have conjointly banged the market, and pocketed the tickets, to defeat the rise and loss that would have ensued to them by their buying on a rising price on the accompt day […]
  7. (slang) A policeman.
    1. (US) Specifically, a policeman employed in a railroad yard.
  8. (LGBT, slang) An elderly lesbian.[1]
  9. (UK, historical, obsolete slang) A crown coin; its value, 5 shillings.
  10. (UK) Clipping of bullseye.
    • 1926, T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, New York: Anchor (1991), p. 219:
      A second good game was to cannon one galloping camel with another, and crash it into a near tree. Either the tree went down (valley trees in the light Hejaz soil were notably unstable things) or the rider was scratched and torn; or, best of all, he was swept quite out of his saddle, and left impaled on a thorny branch, if not dropped violently to the ground. This counted as a bull, and was very popular with everyone but him.
    1. (military, firearms) The central portion of a target, inside the inner and magpie.
  11. (Philadelphia, slang) A man or boy (derived from the Philadelphia English pronunciation of “boy”, which is practically a homophone of “bull”)
  12. (uncountable, informal, euphemistic, slang) Clipping of bullshit.
  13. A man who has sex with another man's wife or girlfriend with the consent of both.
  14. (obsolete) A drink made by pouring water into a cask that previously held liquor.
  15. (slang, uncountable) Beef.
    • 1949, Stephen Peter Llewellyn, Journey Towards Christmas (page 142)
      Meanwhile the Tommies had discovered several large tins of ham in the captured lorry. 'That,' said the big Nazi, 'is for our tea.' 'No,' said a Tommy sergeant-major. 'That's for our tea. For you, chummy, we've kept a nice bit of bull.'
SynonymsEdit
AntonymsEdit
  • (finance: investor who sells in anticipation of a fall in prices): bear
Coordinate termsEdit
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

AdjectiveEdit

bull (not comparable)

  1. Large and strong, like a bull.
  2. (of large mammals) Adult male.
    a bull elephant
    Synonym: male
    Antonym: female
  3. (finance) Of a market in which prices are rising (compare bear).
    Antonym: bear
  4. Stupid.
    Synonym: stupid
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit

VerbEdit

bull (third-person singular simple present bulls, present participle bulling, simple past and past participle bulled)

  1. (intransitive, often with into or through) To force oneself (in a particular direction).
    He bulled his way in.
  2. (agriculture, intransitive, of a cow or heifer) To be in heat; to be ready for mating with a bull.
  3. (agriculture, transitive, of a bull) To mate with (a cow or heifer).
  4. (finance, transitive) To endeavour to raise the market price of.
    to bull railroad bonds
  5. (finance, transitive) To endeavour to raise prices in.
    to bull the market
Derived termsEdit

(terms derived from the adj., noun, or verb bull (etymology 1)):

TranslationsEdit

Etymology 2Edit

Middle English bulle, from Old French bulle, from Latin bulla, from Gaulish. Doublet of bull (“bubble”) and bulla.

NounEdit

bull (plural bulls)

  1. A papal bull, an official document or edict from the Pope.
  2. A seal affixed to a document, especially a document from the Pope.
TranslationsEdit

VerbEdit

bull (third-person singular simple present bulls, present participle bulling, simple past and past participle bulled)

  1. (dated, 17th century) to publish in a Papal bull

Etymology 3Edit

Middle English bull (“falsehood”), of unknown origin. Possibly related to Old French boul, boule, bole (“fraud, deceit, trickery”). Popularly associated with bullshit.

NounEdit

bull (uncountable)

  1. A lie.
  2. (euphemistic, informal) Nonsense.
SynonymsEdit
TranslationsEdit

VerbEdit

bull (third-person singular simple present bulls, present participle bulling, simple past and past participle bulled)

  1. To mock; to cheat.
  2. (intransitive) To lie, to tell untruths.
  3. (UK, military) To polish boots to a high shine.

Etymology 4Edit

Old French boule (“ball”), from Latin bulla (“round swelling”), of Gaulish origin. Doublet of bull (“papal bull”) and bulla.

NounEdit

bull (plural bulls)

  1. (obsolete) A bubble. [16th century]

ReferencesEdit

  1. ^ A. F. Niemoeller, "A Glossary of Homosexual Slang," Fact 2, no. 1 (Jan-Feb 1965): 25

CatalanEdit

PronunciationEdit

Etymology 1Edit

From bullir.

NounEdit

bull m (plural bulls)

  1. boiling
  2. effervescence

VerbEdit

bull

  1. third-person singular present indicative form of bullir
  2. second-person singular imperative form of bullir

Etymology 2Edit

From Latin botulus (“sausage”).

NounEdit

bull m (plural bulls)

  1. A type of pork sausage.
Related termsEdit

Further readingEdit

CimbrianEdit

EtymologyEdit

Reduced form of bóol (“well”).

AdverbEdit

bull (comparative péssor, superlative dar péste)

  1. (Sette Comuni) well
    Iime bull hölfasto, miar net, sbaar? ― He's helping you well, but not me, right?

ReferencesEdit

  • “bull” in Martalar, Umberto Martello; Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo

FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

From a clipped form of French bulldozer, from American English bulldozer.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

bull m (plural bulls)

  1. (construction) bulldozer
    Synonym: bulldozer

SynonymsEdit

IcelandicEdit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

bull n (genitive singular bulls, no plural)

  1. nonsense, gibberish

DeclensionEdit

declension of bull
n-s singular
indefinite definite
nominative bull bullið
accusative bull bullið
dative bulli bullinu
genitive bulls bullsins

SynonymsEdit

Related termsEdit

  • bulla (“to talk nonsense, to boil”)

WestrobothnianEdit

Etymology 1Edit

From Old Norse bolli, from Proto-Germanic *bullô.

NounEdit

bull m

  1. wooden bowl, lathed vessel, big bowl

Etymology 2Edit

From Proto-Germanic *bullǭ.

NounEdit

bull f

  1. loaf
Derived termsEdit
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