Bull (&unr_;), n. [OE. bule, bul, bole; akin to D. bul, G. bulle, Icel. boli, Lith. bullus, Lett. bollis, Russ. vol'; prob. fr. the root of AS. bellan, E. bellow.] 1. (Zoöl.) The male of any species of cattle (Bovidæ); hence, the male of any large quadruped, as the elephant; also, the male of the whale.
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&hand_; The wild bull of the Old Testament is thought to be the oryx, a large species of antelope.
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2. One who, or that which, resembles a bull in character or action. Ps. xxii. 12.
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3. (Astron.) (a) Taurus, the second of the twelve signs of the zodiac. (b) A constellation of the zodiac between Aries and Gemini. It contains the Pleiades.
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At last from Aries rolls the bounteous sun,
And the bright Bull receives him. Thomson.
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4. (Stock Exchange) One who operates in expectation of a rise in the price of stocks, or in order to effect such a rise. See 4th Bear, n., 5.
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5. a ludicrously false statement; nonsense. Also used as an expletive. [vulgar]
Syn. -- bullshit, Irish bull, horseshit, shit, crap, crapola, bunk, bunkum, buncombe, guff, nonsense, rot, tommyrot, balderdash, hogwash, dogshit.
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Bull baiting, the practice of baiting bulls, or rendering them furious, as by setting dogs to attack them. -- John Bull, a humorous name for the English, collectively; also, an Englishman. “Good-looking young John Bull.” W. D.Howells. -- To take the bull by the horns, to grapple with a difficulty instead of avoiding it.
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Bull, v. i. To be in heat; to manifest sexual desire as cows do. [Colloq.]
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Bull, n. [OE. bulle, fr. L. bulla bubble, stud, knob, LL., a seal or stamp: cf. F. bulle. Cf. Bull a writing, Bowl a ball, Boil, v. i.] 1. A seal. See Bulla.
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2. A letter, edict, or respect, of the pope, written in Gothic characters on rough parchment, sealed with a bulla, and dated “a die Incarnationis,” i. e., “from the day of the Incarnation.” See Apostolical brief, under Brief.
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A fresh bull of Leo's had declared how inflexible the court of Rome was in the point of abuses. Atterbury.
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3. A grotesque blunder in language; an apparent congruity, but real incongruity, of ideas, contained in a form of expression; so called, perhaps, from the apparent incongruity between the dictatorial nature of the pope's bulls and his professions of humility.
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And whereas the papist boasts himself to be a Roman Catholic, it is a mere contradiction, one of the pope's bulls, as if he should say universal particular; a Catholic schimatic. Milton.
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The Golden Bull, an edict or imperial constitution made by the emperor Charles IV. (1356), containing what became the fundamental law of the German empire; -- so called from its golden seal.
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Syn. -- See Blunder.
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