Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- n. A person who is habitually cruel or overbearing, especially to smaller or weaker people.
- n. A hired ruffian; a thug.
- n. A pimp.
- n. Archaic A fine person.
- n. Archaic A sweetheart.
- transitive v. To treat in an overbearing or intimidating manner. See Synonyms at intimidate.
- transitive v. To make (one's way) aggressively.
- intransitive v. To behave like a bully.
- intransitive v. To force one's way aggressively or by intimidation: "They bully into line at the gas pump” ( Martin Gottfried).
- adj. Excellent; splendid: did a bully job of persuading the members.
- interj. Used to express approval: Bully for you!
- n. Canned or pickled beef. Also called bully beef.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- n. A person who is cruel to others, especially those who are weaker or have less power.
- n. A hired thug.
- n. A prostitute’s minder; a pimp.
- n. Bully beef.
- v. To intimidate (someone) as a bully.
- v. To act aggressively towards.
- adj. Very good; excellent.
- interj. Well done!
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- Pickled or canned beef.
- adj. Jovial and blustering; dashing.
- adj. Fine; excellent.
- n. A noisy, blustering fellow, more insolent than courageous, who threatens, intimidates, or badgers people who are smaller or weaker than he is; an insolent, tyrannical fellow.
- n. A brisk, dashing fellow.
- interj. Well done! Excellent!
- intransitive v. To act as a bully{1}.
- transitive v. To intimidate or badger with threats and by an overbearing, swaggering demeanor; to act the part of a bully{1} toward.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing fellow; a swaggerer; a swashbuckler; one who hectors, browbeats, or domineers.
- n. A companion; a high-spirited, dashing fellow: a familiar term of address.
- n. A degraded fellow who protects fallen women and lives on their gains.
- n. A Cornish name of the shanny. Also bullycod.
- n. In Tasmania, a species of blenny, Blennius tasmanicus.
- Blustering; hectoring; ruffianly.
- Brisk; dashing; jovial; high-spirited.
- Fine; capital; good: as, a bully horse, picture, etc.
- To act the bully toward; overbear with bluster or menaces.
- To make fearful; overawe; daunt; terrorize.
- Synonyms To browbeat, hector, domineer over.
- To be loudly arrogant and overbearing; be noisy and quarrelsome.
- Synonyms To bluster, swagger, vapor.
- n. In mining, a kind of hammer used in striking the drill or borer. In its simplest form it has a square section at the eye and an octagonal face.
- n. In field-hockey, the beginning of a game and the starting of each goal. A player from each side stands facing the sideline, and strikes first the ground and then the stick of his opponent alternately three times, after which either player may strike the ball: as soon as it is so struck the ball is in play.
- n. A foot-ball scrimmage.
- n. The foreman or boss of a logging-camp.
- n. Canned or pickled beef. Also attrib., as bully beef.
- n. The bullace or sloe.
- n. Same as bully-tree. Also called bully-bay and bully-berry tree.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- n. a hired thug
- adj. very good
- v. discourage or frighten with threats or a domineering manner; intimidate
- v. be bossy towards
- n. a cruel and brutal fellow
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Examples
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We start with the biggest bully on the block, because everyone knows that if you stand up and take down the big _bully, others will respect you
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It was on that vacation that Roosevelt coined the term "bully pulpit" and brushed aside concerns about his vacation safety so soon after his predecessor was assassinated.
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James Dobson has given new meaning to the term bully pulpit.
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When a bully is at work they are about one main thing, control.
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As a matter of fact the Quinnipiac poll, which surveyed 1,532 registered New Jersey voters, noted that "bully" and "arrogant" were the top two words offered when voters were asked, with no suggestions given, to describe Christie in one word, with the word "bully" out distancing "arrogant" by more than three times.
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You libs and your anger spewing filth like a bully is all you can do when faced with facts.
Source: Joe Wilson racking up the dollars after 'you lie' comment
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But cutting a deal with a bully is a different story, particularly if the 'deal' means helping him steal others 'money as the price of protecting your own.
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Biff (from Back to the Future) â⠂ ¬â€œ This bully is the villain for all 3 Back to the Future films, just in slightly different personas.
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I could get no eatables upon the ruoad, but what they called bully, which looks like the flesh of Pharaoh's lean kine stewed into rags and tatters; and then their peajohn, peajohn, rabbet them!
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Sometimes the most compassionate act one can do for a bully is to effectively signal them that they risk life and limb if they attack you.
The Volokh Conspiracy » A Crime to Repeatedly Insult a Minor
ruzuzu commented on the word bully
Such an interesting word: mining, beef, football, pimps.
July 1, 2015
fbharjo commented on the word bully
meaning has gone from "something commendable" to "brute"
September 8, 2009
fbharjo commented on the word bully
word used to describe really good recipes in my grandmother's cookbook
January 9, 2009
oroboros commented on the word bully
A Teddy Roosevelt interjection.
August 12, 2007
brtom commented on the word bully
It was a real bully circus. HF 22
December 7, 2006