bully
A person who is intentionally physically or emotionally cruel to others, especially to those whom they perceive as being vulnerable or of less power or privilege.
Adjective
- Very good.
- a bully horse
- To sing a bully song I'll try, / Bully for you, bully for you, / Gay as they make them, here I am, / Bully for you, for you. - 1861, Daniel Bryant, Bryant's Songs from Dixie's Land, page 19:
- He looked down upon the girl beside him—a daughter of the desert walking across the face of a dead world with a son of the jungle. He smiled at the thought. He wished that he had had a sister, and that she had been like...
Synonyms: excellent ace admirable amazing awe-inspiring awesome badass bang on bang-up studly based beatific beneship bitching blissful bomb brilliant bully celestial cher choice chronic chur cock on
- Jovial and blustering.
- Bless thee, bully doctor! - 1597, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, act II, scene iii:
Synonyms: dashing
Origin
From 1530, as a term of endearment, probably a diminutive ( + -y) of Dutch boel (“lover; brother”), from Middle Dutch boel, boele (“brother; lover”), from Old Dutch *buolo, from Proto-Germanic *bōlô (compare Middle Low German bôle (“brother”), Middle High German buole (“brother; close relative; close relation”) (whence German Buhle (“lover”)), Old English Bōla, Bōlla (personal name), diminutive of expressive *bō- (“brother, father”). Compare also Latvian bālinš (“brother”). More at boy. The term acquired a negative connotation during the 17th century; first ‘noisy, blustering fellow’ then ‘a person who is cruel to others’. Possibly influenced by bull (“male cattle”) or via the ‘prostitute's minder’ sense. The positive senses are dated, but survive in phrases such as bully pulpit.
Forms
Derived
Interjection
- Well done; often sarcastic in modern use.
- Bully, she's finally asked for that promotion!
- Bully! Bully! Finis coronet opus, “the end crowns all”; “may the last be the best!” By Godfrey it was delightful. - 1979, Jerome Alden, Bully: An Adventure with Teddy Roosevelt, →OCLC, page 3:
Synonyms: bravissimo bravo bully cock on congrats congratulations encore fair fucks full marks get you good for someone good for you good going good job good on you good show good work hats off hon hoorah hooray hurrah hurray huzza
Noun
- A person who is intentionally physically or emotionally cruel to others, especially to those whom they perceive as being vulnerable or of less power or privilege.
- A playground bully pushed a girl off the swing.
- I noticed you being a bully towards people with disabilities.
- A noisy, blustering, tyrannical person, more insolent than courageous; one who is threatening and quarrelsome.
- Besides, bullies seldom execute the threats they deal in; and men of trick and cunning are not always men of desperate resolves. - 1840 September 22, Lord Palmerston, The Life of Henry John Temple, Viscount of...
- And I think the facts are that Beijing is a belligerent bully jealous and envious of what Taiwan has accomplished- mainland China- that's what I get out of all of this. - 1999 August 5, Jesse Helms, quotee, 1:27 from...
- A hired thug.
- Mr. Fisher returned from town... he had learnt that our opponents intended to shift the scene of operations to the Chats... We understood that they had hired two bullies for the purpose of deciding the matter par voie...
- A sex worker's minder.
- The Proclamation Society and the Society for the Suppression of Vice were more concerned with obscene literature […] than with hands-on street battles with prostitutes and their bullies […]. - 2009, Dan Cruikshank,...
Synonyms: pimp abbot bludger bully cock-bawd dalaal fishmonger flashman fleshmonger hoon hustler mackerel mack mack daddy muttonmonger nookie-bookie pandar pussymonger ruffian souteneur sweetman whoreman whoremaster whoremonger
- Bully beef.
- A brisk, dashing fellow.
- What sayest thou, Bully Bottom? - c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall...
- The small scrum in the Eton College field game.
- Any of various small freshwater or brackishwater fish of the family Eleotridae; sleeper gobies.
- An (eldest) brother; a fellow workman; comrade
- Frae Team Gut to Whitley, we' coals black an' brown For the Amphitrite loaded, the keel had come down— But the bullies ower neet had their gobs se oft wet, That the nyem o' the ship yen an' a' did forget. - 1824, Robert...
- A companion; mate (male or female).
Synonyms: babber billy bredrin bruv bud buddo buddy butty chaver china chuck chum cock cocker cobber compadre comrade companion cove crony dawg dude duck fam
- A darling, sweetheart (male or female).
- I kiss his dirty shoe, and from heart-string / I love the lovely bully. What is thy name? - 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &...
- I have promised to be with the sweet bully early in the morning of her important day. - 1753, Samuel Richardson, “Letter 15”, in The History of Sir Charles Grandison:
- What! manim-an—kiss your child, man alive. That I may never, but he looks at the darlin’ as if it was a sod of turf! Throth you’re not worthy of havin’ such a bully. - 1848, William Carleton, Fardorougha the Miser, page...
Synonyms: babber babe precious bae baby babycakes bubba bully buttercup cabbage chickabiddy chickadee chuck cupcake cutie dag darling dear dear heart dearest dearie dearling doll doodlebug
- A standoff between two players from the opposing teams, who repeatedly hit each other's hockey sticks and then attempt to acquire the ball, as a method of resuming the game in certain circumstances.
Synonyms: bully-off
Forms
Derived
American bully antibully bulliness bully-boy bullycide bullydom bullyee bullyish bullyism bullylike bullyman bully-off bullyproof bullysome bully stick bully tree bully XL crybully cyberbully flat-track bully nonbully XL bully
Verb
- To intimidate (someone) as a bully.
- You shouldn't bully people for being weak.
- I won't have you bullying us out my own house.
- Bradly's stomach kinked in on itself, thinking of Cora struck silly with that corpse on her hands and the copper bullying the truth out of her. - 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney,...
Synonyms: buffalo bulldoze bully browbeat cow dastardize daunt dishearten do down domineer drive hector intimidate menace strong-arm
- To act aggressively towards.
- The Potters know their strengths and played to them perfectly here, out-muscling Bolton in midfield and bullying the visitors' back-line at every opportunity. - 2011 January 15, Sam Sheringham, “Chelsea 2 -03 Blackburn...
Synonyms: push around ride roughshod over