different between bully vs bulldoze

English

Etymology

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 *b?lô (compare Middle Low German bôle (“brother”), Middle High German buole (“brother; close relative; close relation”) (whence German Buhle (“lover”)), Old English B?la, B?lla (personal name), diminutive of expressive *b?- (“brother, father”). Compare also Latvian b?linš (“brother”). More at boy.

The term acquired negative senses 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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b?li/
• Rhymes: -?li

Noun

bully (countable and uncountable, plural bullies)

1. A person who is intentionally physically or emotionally cruel to others, especially to those who are weaker or have less power or privilege. [from late 17th c.]

2. A noisy, blustering, tyrannical person, more insolent than courageous; one who is threatening and quarrelsome.
3. A hired thug.
   • 1849, John McLean, Notes of a Twenty-Five Years' Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory, pp. 42-3:

     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.

   Synonyms: henchman, thug

4. A sex worker’s minder.

   Synonyms: pimp; see also Thesaurus:pimp

   • 2009, Dan Cruikshank, Secret History of Georgian London, Random House, p. 473:

     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 […].

5. (uncountable) Bully beef.
6. (obsolete) A brisk, dashing fellow.
7. The small scrum in the Eton College field game.
8. Various small freshwater or brackishwater fish of the family Eleotridae; sleeper goby.
9. (obsolete or dialectal, Ireland and Northern England) An (eldest) brother; a fellow workman; comrade
10. (dialectal) A companion; mate (male or female).

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:friend

11. (obsolete) A darling, sweetheart (male or female).

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:sweetheart
12. (field hockey) 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. Also called bully-off.
13. (mining) A miner's hammer.

Translations

Verb

bully (third-person singular simple present bullies, present participle bullying, simple past and past participle bullied)

1. (transitive) To intimidate (someone) as a bully.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:intimidate

2. (transitive) To act aggressively towards.

   Synonyms: push around, ride roughshod over

Translations

Adjective

bully (comparative bullier, superlative bulliest)

1. (US, slang) Very good.

   Synonyms: excellent; see also Thesaurus:excellent

   • 1916, The Independent (volumes 35-36, page 6)

     She is a bully woman, not only a good mother, but a wonderful in-law

2. (slang, obsolete) Jovial and blustering.

   Synonym: dashing

   • 1597, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor Act II, scene iii:

Derived terms

• bully boy
• bully pulpit

Translations

Interjection

bully

1. (often followed by for) Well done!

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:well done

Translations

Further reading

• bully on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

References

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English bully, itself a derivation of Dutch boel (“lover; brother”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?bu.li/
• Hyphenation: bul?ly

Noun

bully m (plural bully's)

1. (field hockey) bully (way of resuming the game with a standoff between two opposing players who repeatedly hit each other's sticks, then try to gain possession of the ball)

Spanish

Noun

bully m (plural bullys or bullies or bully)

1. bully

English

Etymology

From earlier bulldose (noun, literally “bull-dose, a dose fit for a bull”), equivalent to bull +? dose.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?b?ldo?z/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b?ld??z/
• Hyphenation: bull?doze

Verb

bulldoze (third-person singular simple present bulldozes, present participle bulldozing, simple past and past participle bulldozed)

1. To destroy with a bulldozer.

   He's certainly very chirpy for a man whose house has just been bulldozed down.
2. (Britain) To push someone over by heading straight over them. Often used in conjunction with "over".

   He just ran across the field bulldozing everyone over.

3. (Britain) To push through forcefully.

   • For the second time in a week, Wenger's team gave themselves an encouraging platform. In the 11th minute Theo Walcott drilled in a corner, and Olivier Giroud bulldozed through unopposed to thump the ball goalwards.

4. To push into a heap, as a bulldozer does.
   • 1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift [Avon ed., 1976, p. 469]:

     There stood a low yellow compact machine which apparently did the digging and bull-dozed back the earth.

   Again the animal had bulldozed all of its bedding into a heap at one end of its cage.

5. (Britain) To shoot down an idea immediately and forcefully.

   That was a good suggestion, but you just bulldozed it.

6. (US, slang, dated) To intimidate; to restrain or coerce by intimidation or violence; used originally of the intimidation of black voters in Louisiana.

Translations

References

Kelly, John. "What in the Word?! The racist roots of 'bulldozer'". Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 21 October 2018.

Further reading

• bulldoze on Wikipedia.Wikipedia