- [countable] the male of any animal in the cow family
- a bull neck (= a short thick neck like a bull's)
- [countable] the male of the elephant, whale and some other large animals
- a bull elephant
- [countable] (finance) a person who buys shares in a company, hoping to sell them soon afterwards at a higher price compare bear
- [countable] an official order or statement from the Pope (= the head of the Roman Catholic Church)
- a papal bull
- [uncountable] (informal) ideas, statements or beliefs that you think are silly or not true
- That's a load of bull!
- If you want to believe all that bull it’s up to you.
- That’s just bull and you know it.
- [countable] (also bullseye)the centre of the target that you shoot or throw at in shooting, archery or darts; a shot or throw that hits this see also cock and bull story
Word Originsenses 1 to 3 and sense 6 late Old English bula (recorded in place names), from Old Norse boli. Compare with bullock.sense 4 Middle English: from Old French bulle, from Latin bulla ‘bubble, rounded object’ (in medieval Latin ‘seal ’or‘ sealed document’).
Idioms
See bull in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarya bull in a china shop
- a person who is careless, or who moves or acts in a rough way, in a place or situation where skill and care are needed
- You’re not going to go storming in there like a bull in a china shop, are you?
like waving a red flag in front of a bull (North American English)
(British English a red rag to a bull)
- used to talk about something that is likely to make somebody very angry
shoot the breeze/bull
- (North American English, informal) to have a conversation in an informal way synonym chat
- We sat around in the bar, shooting the breeze.
take the bull by the horns
- to face a difficult or dangerous situation directly and with courage
- Nora decided to take the bull by the horns and organize things for herself.
Check pronunciation:
bull