Bull

[bʊl]

Definition

(noun.) a serious and ludicrous blunder; 'he made a bad bull of the assignment'.

(noun.) mature male of various mammals of which the female is called `cow'; e.g. whales or elephants or especially cattle.

(noun.) uncastrated adult male of domestic cattle.

(noun.) a formal proclamation issued by the pope (usually written in antiquated characters and sealed with a leaden bulla).

(noun.) a large and strong and heavyset man; 'he was a bull of a man'; 'a thick-skinned bruiser ready to give as good as he got'.

(noun.) an investor with an optimistic market outlook; an investor who expects prices to rise and so buys now for resale later.

(noun.) uncomplimentary terms for a policeman.

(verb.) advance in price; 'stocks were bulling'.

(verb.) try to raise the price of stocks through speculative buying.

(verb.) push or force; 'He bulled through his demands'.

Editor: Moore--From WordNet

Definition

(n.) The male of any species of cattle (Bovidae); hence, the male of any large quadruped, as the elephant; also, the male of the whale.

(n.) One who, or that which, resembles a bull in character or action.

(n.) Taurus, the second of the twelve signs of the zodiac.

(n.) A constellation of the zodiac between Aries and Gemini. It contains the Pleiades.

(n.) One who operates in expectation of a rise in the price of stocks, or in order to effect such a rise. See 4th Bear, n., 5.

(a.) Of or pertaining to a bull; resembling a bull; male; large; fierce.

(v. i.) To be in heat; to manifest sexual desire as cows do.

(v. t.) To endeavor to raise the market price of; as, to bull railroad bonds; to bull stocks; to bull Lake Shore; to endeavor to raise prices in; as, to bull the market. See 1st Bull, n., 4.

(v. i.) A seal. See Bulla.

(v. i.) A letter, edict, or respect, of the pope, written in Gothic characters on rough parchment, sealed with a bulla, and dated "a die Incarnationis," i. e., "from the day of the Incarnation." See Apostolical brief, under Brief.

(v. i.) A grotesque blunder in language; an apparent congruity, but real incongruity, of ideas, contained in a form of expression; so called, perhaps, from the apparent incongruity between the dictatorial nature of the pope's bulls and his professions of humility.

Checker: Mollie

Synonyms and Synonymous

n. [1]. Male of bovine animals.[2]. Edict (issued by the Pope), rescript.[3]. Blunder (involving a contradiction), gross mistake.[4]. (Astron.) Taurus.

Checker: Percy

Definition

n. a ludicrous blunder in speech implying some obvious absurdity or contradiction often said to be an especial prerogative of Irishmen—'I was a fine child but they changed me.'

n. an edict of the pope which has his seal affixed.—adj. Bullan′tic—n. Bull′ary a collection of papal bulls.

n. drink made by pouring water into a cask that had held liquor.

n. the male of the ox kind: an old male whale fur-seal &c.: a sign of the zodiac: one who tries artificially and unduly to raise the price of stocks and speculates on a rise.—adj. denoting largeness of size—used in composition as bull-trout: favourable to the bulls rising.—v.t. to try to raise as the price of shares artificially: to copulate with a cow of a bull.—v.i. to be in heat of a cow.—ns. Bull′-baiting the sport of baiting or exciting bulls with dogs; Bull′-bat (U.S.) the night-hawk or goat-sucker; Bull′-beef the beef or flesh of bulls coarse beef: (Shak. in pl.) Bull′-beeves; Bull′-begg′ar a hobgoblin &c.; Bull′-calf a male calf: a stupid fellow a lout; Bull′-dance a dance of men only; Bull′dog a breed of dogs of great courage formerly used for baiting bulls its general appearance that of a smooth-coated compact dog low in stature but broad and powerful with a massive head large in proportion to its body: a person of obstinate courage: a short-barrelled revolver of large calibre: a proctor's attendant at Oxford and Cambridge.—v.t. Bull′-dose (U.S.) to intimidate bully: flog.—n. Bull′-dōs′er.—adj. Bull′-faced having a large face.—ns. Bull′-fight a popular spectacle in Spain in which a bull is goaded to fury in a kind of circus by mounted picadores armed with lances and finally despatched by a specially skilful espada or swordsman; Bull′-fight′er; Bull′-finch a species of red-breasted finch a little larger than the common linnet closely allied to the grossbeaks and crossbills: a kind of hedge hard to jump; Bull′-frog a large North American frog.—adj. Bull′-front′ed having a front or forehead like a bull.—n. Bull′-head or Miller's Thumb a small river fish remarkable for its large flat head.—adj. Bull′-head′ed impetuous and obstinate.—n. Bull′-head′edness.—adj. Bull′ish.—ns. Bull′ock an ox or castrated bull; Bull′-roar′er a provincial English name for a boy's plaything made of an oblong piece of wood to one end of which a string is tied then twisted tightly round the finger when the whole is whirled rapidly round and round until a loud and peculiar whirring noise is produced—the native Australian turndun the rhombos of the Greek mysteries; Bull's′-eye the central boss formed in making a sheet of blown glass (hence adj. Bull's′-eyed) a round piece of glass in a lantern a policeman's lantern a round opening or window: the centre of a target of a different colour from the rest and usually round: a thick lump of coloured or striped candy; Bull′-terr′ier a species of dog a cross-breed between the bulldog and the terrier; Bull′-trout a large trout of the salmon genus also migratory in its habits often called the Gray Trout; Bull′-whack a heavy whip.—v.t. to lash with such.—n. Bull′wort the bishop's weed.—Bull into to plunge hastily into.—A bull in a china-shop a synonym for a man who does harm through ignorance or fury a man completely out of place.—Take the bull by the horns to face a danger or difficulty with courage to take the initiative boldly in a struggle.

Typed by Brian