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Added 8 October 2026

bull

/bʊl/ noun

In Latin: taurus, bōs Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about bull at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Uncastrated adult male of domestic cattle.
A large and strong and heavyset man.
he was a bull of a man
Obscene words for unacceptable behavior.
I put up with a lot of bullshit from that jerk

verb

Push or force.
He bulled through his demands
Try to raise the price of stocks through speculative buying.
Speak insincerely or without regard for facts or truths.
The politician was not well prepared for the debate and faked it

Origin

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 Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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