Sekirov Dictionary

bully

/ˈbʊli/

noun 13
adjective 2
verb 2
exclamation 1
forms 5
phrases 1

noun13

•
a person who treats weaker people badly on purpose, hurting them or making them afraid
- 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
A hired thug.
•
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
(informal) Bully beef.
The small scrum in the Eton College field game.
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.
Any of various small freshwater or brackishwater fish of the family Eleotridae; sleeper gobies.
(dialect) A companion; mate (male or female).
A miner's hammer.
(dialect, no longer used) An (eldest) brother; a fellow workman; comrade
•
(no longer used) A brisk, dashing fellow.
- What sayest thou, Bully Bottom? — 1595
•
(no longer used) 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

adjective2

•
(slang, old-fashioned) Very good.
- 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
•
(slang, no longer used) Jovial and blustering.
- Bless thee, bully doctor! — 1597

verb2

•
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.
•
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

exclamation1

•
Well done; often sarcastic in modern use.
- Bully, she's finally asked for that promotion!

forms

bullied · bullying · bullies · bullier · bulliest

Phrases with bully

bully-off
A method of starting or restarting a game whereby two opposing players face off with the ball between them, clash sticks three times, and then attempt to be first to the ball.

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