bully
pronunciation
How to pronounce bully in British English:
UK [ˈbʊli]
How to pronounce bully in American English:
US [ˈbʊli]
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- Noun:
- a cruel and brutal fellow
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- Verb:
- be bossy towards
- discourage or frighten with threats or a domineering manner; intimidate
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- Adjective:
- very good
Word Origin
- bully
- bully: [16] Bullies have undergone a sad decline in status. In the 16th century the word meant ‘sweetheart’: ‘Though she be somewhat old, it is my own sweet bully’, John Bale, Three laws 1538. But gradually the rot set in, its meaning passing through ‘fine fellow’ to ‘blusterer’ to the present-day harasser of inferiors. In the 18th and 19th centuries it also meant ‘pimp’.It is probably a modification of Dutch boele ‘lover’ which, as a term of endearment, may have originated as baby-talk. This bully has no connection with the bully of bully beef [18], which comes from French bouilli, the past participle of bouillir ‘boil’. The bully of bully off [19], a now discontinued way of starting play in hockey, appears to come from a term for ‘scrummage’ in Eton football, but whether that is related to the cruel bully is not clear.
- bully (n.)
- 1530s, originally "sweetheart," applied to either sex, from Dutch boel "lover; brother," probably a diminutive of Middle Dutch broeder "brother" (compare Middle High German buole "brother," source of German Buhle "lover;" see brother (n.)). Meaning deteriorated 17c. through "fine fellow" and "blusterer" to "harasser of the weak" (1680s, from bully-ruffian, 1650s). Perhaps this was by influence of bull (n.1), but a connecting sense between "lover" and "ruffian" may be in "protector of a prostitute," which was one sense of bully (though not specifically attested until 1706). The expression meaning "worthy, jolly, admirable" (especially in 1864 U.S. slang bully for you!) is first attested 1680s, and preserves an earlier, positive sense of the word.
- bully (v.)
- 1710, from bully (n.). Related: Bullied; bullying.
Example
- 1. Well , tick tock timer is that bully for me today .
- 2. They shower old factories with subsidies and bully bosses who want to move production abroad .
- 3. His half-brother hates him , people at school bully him , and he has a pretty grim dead cert future down the mines .
- 4. What we learned : if you bully your team 's water boy he will later show up inexplicably playing for your arch rival and rupture your spleen .
- 5. Assume its most hardline protagonists are right : that they are the heirs to an ancient civilisation , whereas greece is an ethno-nationalist bully with fascist undertones that oppresses a slavic minority in the north .