Meaning of Bully | Babel Free

Definitions

1. 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.
   countable, uncountable
2. A noisy, blustering, tyrannical person, more insolent than courageous; one who is threatening and quarrelsome.
   countable, uncountable
3. A hired thug.
   countable, uncountable
4. A sex worker's minder.
   countable, uncountable
5. Bully beef.
   uncountable
6. A brisk, dashing fellow.
   countable, obsolete, uncountable
7. The small scrum in the Eton College field game.
   countable, uncountable
8. Any of various small freshwater or brackishwater fish of the family Eleotridae; sleeper gobies.
   countable, uncountable
9. An (eldest) brother; a fellow workman; comrade
   Ireland, Northern-England, countable, dialectal, obsolete, uncountable
10. A companion; mate (male or female).
    countable, dialectal, uncountable
11. A darling, sweetheart (male or female).
    countable, obsolete, uncountable
12. 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.
    countable, uncountable
13. A miner's hammer.
    countable, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“A playground bully pushed a girl off the swing.”

“I noticed you being a bully towards people with disabilities.”

“Besides, bullies seldom execute the threats they deal in; and men of trick and cunning are not always men of desperate resolves.”

“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.”

“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 de fait. Mr Fisher hired two of the same description, who were supposed to be more than a match for the opposition party.”

“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 […].”

“What sayest thou, Bully Bottom?”

“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.”

“I kiss his dirty shoe, and from heart-string / I love the lovely bully. What is thy name?”

“I have promised to be with the sweet bully early in the morning of her important day.”

“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.”

CEFR level