bull

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʊl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊl

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”) (compare West Frisian bolle, Dutch bul, German Low German Bull, German Bulle, Swedish bulla), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰl̥no- (compare Old Irish ball (“limb”), Latin follis (“bellows, leather bag”), Thracian βόλινθος (“wild bull”), Albanian buall (“buffalo”) or related bolle (“testicles”), Ancient Greek φαλλός (phallós, “penis”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to blow”). More at blow.

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. An adult male of certain large mammals, such as whales, elephants and seals.
4. A large, strong man.
5. (finance) An investor who buys (commodities or securities) in anticipation of a rise in prices.
6. (slang) A policeman.
   • 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart; Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, OCLC 20230794, page 01:

     The Bat—they called him the Bat. […]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.

   1. (US) Specifically, a policeman employed in a railroad yard.
7. (Britain, historical, obsolete slang) A crown coin; its value, 5 shillings.
   • 1859, J.C. Hotten, A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words

     Half-a-crown is known as an alderman, half a bull, half a tusheroon, and a madza caroon; whilst a crown piece, or five shillings, may be called either a bull, or a caroon, or a cartwheel, or a coachwheel, or a thick-un, or a tusheroon.

8. (Britain) Clipping of bullseye.
   1. (military, firearms) The central portion of a target, inside the inner and magpie.
9. (Philadelphia, slang) A man.
10. (uncountable, vulgar, slang) Clipping of bullshit..
11. A man who has sex with another man's wife or girlfriend with the consent of both.
    • 2018 ‘Stag’ men love watching other guys have sex with their wives… but it’s not cuckolding

      The Vixen, often known as ‘Hotwife’, has sex with the encouragement of her husband or boyfriend with the Bull (that’s the guy who is servicing her). Another scenario is that the Vixen has sex with a Bull outside of the couple’s shared abode. Then she comes home and recounts all the details in a blow-by-blow description to turn the Stag on.

12. (obsolete) A drink made by pouring water into a cask that previously held liquor.

• (slang: male person): guy, dude, bro, cat
• (slang: policeman): cop, copper, pig (derogatory), rozzer (British). See also Thesaurus:police officer

• (finance: investor who sells in anticipation of a fall in prices): bear

• cow, ox, calf, steer

• Banbury story of a cock and a bull

bull (not comparable)

1. Large and strong, like a bull.
2. (of large mammals) adult male

   a bull elephant

3. (finance) Of a market in which prices are rising (compare bear)
4. stupid

• (large and strong): beefy, hunky, robust
• (male): male
• (stupid): stupid

• (large and strong): feeble, puny, weak
• (male): female
• (of a market): bear

Shortened from bullshit

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

1. (intransitive) To force oneself (in a particular direction).

   He bulled his way in.

2. (intransitive) To lie, to tell untruths.
3. (intransitive) To be in heat; to manifest sexual desire as cows do.
4. (Britain, military) To polish boots to a high shine.
5. (finance, transitive) To endeavour to raise the market price of.

   to bull railroad bonds

6. (finance, transitive) To endeavour to raise prices in.

   to bull the market

From Middle English bulle, from Old French bulle, from Low Latin bulla.

bull (plural bulls)

1. A papal bull, an official document or edict from the Pope.
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Pardoners Prologue”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], OCLC 230972125; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: Printed by [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, OCLC 932884868, folio lxx, recto, column 2:

     And who ſo fyndeth hym out of ſuche blame / Commeth up and offre in goddes name / And I assoyle hym by the auctorite / Such as by bulle was graunted to me.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

2. A seal affixed to a document, especially a document from the Pope.

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

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

bull (uncountable)

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

• (nonsense): See also Thesaurus:nonsense

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

1. to mock, cheat

From Old French boule (“ball”), from Latin bulla (“round swelling”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhel (“to blow, to swell”).

bull (plural bulls)

1. (16th century, obsolete) a bubble

• IPA^(key): /buʎ/
• Homophone: vull
• Rhymes: -uʎ

From bullir.

bull m (plural bulls)

1. boiling
2. effervescence

bull

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

bull m (plural bulls)

1. a type of pork sausage

• “bull” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

From bulldozer.

• IPA^(key): /bul/, /byl/

bull m (plural bulls)

1. (construction) bulldozer

• bulldozer
• bouldozeur

• IPA^(key): /pʏtl/
• Rhymes: -ʏtl

bull n (genitive singular bulls, no plural)

1. nonsense, gibberish

• rugl
• vitleysa
• þvæla

• bulla (“to talk nonsense, to boil”)

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

bull m

1. Wooden bowl, lathed vessel, big bowl.

From Proto-Germanic *bullǭ.

bull f

1. Loaf.

• bullsjiv
• bullstommel
• rågbull