different between writ vs bull

English

Etymology

From Middle English writ, iwrit, ?ewrit, from Old English writ (“letter, book, treatise; scripture, writing; writ, charter, document, deed”) and ?ewrit (“writing, something written, written language; written character, bookstave; inscription; orthography; written statement, passage from a book; official or formal document, document; law, jurisprudence; regulation; list, catalog; letter; text of an agreement; writ, charter, deed; literary writing, book, treatise; books dealing with a subject under notice; a book of the Bible; scripture, canonical book, the Scriptures; stylus”), from Proto-Germanic *writ? (“fissure, writing”), from Proto-Indo-European *wrey-, *wr?- (“to scratch, carve, ingrave”). Cognate with Scots writ (“writ, writing, handwriting”), Icelandic rit (“writing, writ, literary work, publication”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Noun

writ (countable and uncountable, plural writs)

1. (law) A written order, issued by a court, ordering someone to do (or stop doing) something.
2. Authority, power to enforce compliance.

   • We can't let them take advantage of the fact that there are so many areas of the world where no one's writ runs.

   • 1913, Elizabeth Kimball Kendall, A Wayfarer in China

     Within Lololand, of course, no Chinese writ runs, no Chinese magistrate holds sway, and the people, more or less divided among themselves, are under the government of their tribal chiefs.

3. (archaic) That which is written; writing.
   • Babylon, so much spoken of in Holy Writ

Synonyms

• claim form (English law)

Derived terms

• drop the writ
• handwrit
• Holy Writ
• writ of habeas corpus

Translations

References

• Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

Verb

writ

1. (archaic) past tense of write
   • c. 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act II scene iv^[2]:

     I know the hand: in faith, 'tis a fair hand;

     And whiter than the paper it writ on

     Is the fair hand that writ.

2. (archaic) past participle of write
   • c. 1596-97, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act II scene iv^[3]:

     I know the hand: in faith, 'tis a fair hand;

     And whiter than the paper it writ on

     Is the fair hand that writ.

   • 1682, John Dryden, Mac Klecknoe

     Let Virtuosos in five years be writ; / Yet not one thought accuse thy toil of wit. (Mac Flecknoe)

   • 1859, Omar Khayyam, Edward Fitzgerlad (translattor), Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

     The moving finger writes, and having writ, not all your piety or wit can lure it back to cancel half a line […]

   • 1821, John Keats

     Here lies One whose Name was writ in Water.

Usage notes

• The form writ survives in standard dialects in the phrase writ large as well as in works aiming for an intentionally poetic or archaic style. It remains common in some dialects (e.g. Scouse).

Derived terms

• writ large
• writ small

Anagrams

• ITRW, Wirt

Gothic

Romanization

writ

1. Romanization of ????????????????

Old English

Alternative forms

• ?ewrit

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *writ?, whence also Old High German riz, Old Norse rit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /writ/

Noun

writ n (nominative plural writu)

1. writ

Declension

Derived terms

• ?ewrit

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?b?l/
• Rhymes: -?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English bole, bul, bule, from a conflation of Old English bula (“bull, steer”) and Old Norse boli, both from Proto-Germanic *bulô (“bull”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?l?no-, from *b?el- (“to blow, swell up”). Cognate with West Frisian bolle, Dutch bul, German Low German Bull, German Bulle, Swedish bulla; also Old Irish ball (“limb”), Latin follis (“bellows, leather bag”), Thracian ???????? (vólinthos, “wild bull”), Albanian buall (“buffalo”) or related bolle (“testicles”), Ancient Greek ?????? (phallós, “penis”).

Noun

bull (countable and uncountable, plural bulls)

1. An adult male of domesticated cattle or oxen.
   1. Specifically, one that is uncastrated.
2. A male of domesticated cattle or oxen of any age.
3. Any adult male bovine.
4. An adult male of certain large mammals, such as whales, elephants, camels and seals.
5. A large, strong man.
6. (finance) An investor who buys (commodities or securities) in anticipation of a rise in prices.
7. (slang) A policeman.

   • The Bat—they called him the Bat. […]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.

   1. (US) Specifically, a policeman employed in a railroad yard.
8. (LGBT, slang) An elderly lesbian.
9. (Britain, historical, obsolete slang) A crown coin; its value, 5 shillings.
   • 1859, J.C. Hotten, A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words

     Half-a-crown is known as an alderman, half a bull, half a tusheroon, and a madza caroon; whilst a crown piece, or five shillings, may be called either a bull, or a caroon, or a cartwheel, or a coachwheel, or a thick-un, or a tusheroon.

10. (Britain) Clipping of bullseye.
    1. (military, firearms) The central portion of a target, inside the inner and magpie.
11. (Philadelphia, slang) A man.
12. (uncountable, informal, euphemistic, slang) Clipping of bullshit.
13. A man who has sex with another man's wife or girlfriend with the consent of both.
    • 2018 ‘Stag’ men love watching other guys have sex with their wives… but it’s not cuckolding

      The Vixen, often known as ‘Hotwife’, has sex with the encouragement of her husband or boyfriend with the Bull (that’s the guy who is servicing her). Another scenario is that the Vixen has sex with a Bull outside of the couple’s shared abode. Then she comes home and recounts all the details in a blow-by-blow description to turn the Stag on.

14. (obsolete) A drink made by pouring water into a cask that previously held liquor.

Synonyms

• (cattle): gentleman cow (obsolete, euphemistic)
• (slang: male person): guy, dude, bro, cat
• (slang: policeman): cop, copper, pig (derogatory), rozzer (British). See also Thesaurus:police officer

Antonyms

• (finance: investor who sells in anticipation of a fall in prices): bear

Coordinate terms

• cow, ox, calf, steer

Derived terms

• Banbury story of a cock and a bull

Translations

Adjective

bull (not comparable)

1. Large and strong, like a bull.
   • Synonyms: beefy, hunky, robust
   • Antonyms: feeble, puny, weak
2. (of large mammals) adult male

   Synonym: male

   Antonym: female

3. (finance) Of a market in which prices are rising (compare bear)

   Antonym: bear

4. stupid

   Synonym: stupid

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

bull (third-person singular simple present bulls, present participle bulling, simple past and past participle bulled)

1. (intransitive) To force oneself (in a particular direction).

   He bulled his way in.

2. (intransitive) To be in heat; to manifest sexual desire as cows do.
3. (finance, transitive) To endeavour to raise the market price of.

   to bull railroad bonds

4. (finance, transitive) To endeavour to raise prices in.

   to bull the market

Derived terms

(terms derived from the adj., noun, or verb bull (etymology 1)):

Translations

Etymology 2

Middle English bulle, from Old French bulle, from Latin bulla, from Gaulish. Doublet of bull (“bubble”) and bulla.

Noun

bull (plural bulls)

1. A papal bull, an official document or edict from the Pope.
2. A seal affixed to a document, especially a document from the Pope.

Translations

Verb

bull (third-person singular simple present bulls, present participle bulling, simple past and past participle bulled)

1. (dated, 17th century) to publish in a Papal bull

Etymology 3

Middle English bull (“falsehood”), of unknown origin. Possibly related to Old French boul, boule, bole (“fraud, deceit, trickery”). Popularly associated with bullshit.

Noun

bull (uncountable)

1. A lie.
2. (euphemistic, informal) Nonsense.

Synonyms

• (nonsense): See also Thesaurus:nonsense

Translations

Verb

bull (third-person singular simple present bulls, present participle bulling, simple past and past participle bulled)

1. To mock; to cheat.
2. (intransitive) To lie, to tell untruths.
3. (Britain, military) To polish boots to a high shine.

Etymology 4

Old French boule (“ball”), from Latin bulla (“round swelling”), of Gaulish origin. Doublet of bull (“papal bull”) and bulla.

Noun

bull (plural bulls)

1. (16th century, obsolete) A bubble.

References

Catalan

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /?bu?/
• Homophone: vull
• Rhymes: -u?

Etymology 1

From bullir.

Noun

bull m (plural bulls)

1. boiling
2. effervescence

Verb

bull

1. third-person singular present indicative form of bullir
2. second-person singular imperative form of bullir

Etymology 2

From Latin botulus (“sausage”).

Noun

bull m (plural bulls)

1. A type of pork sausage.

Related terms

• budell

Further reading

• “bull” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Cimbrian

Etymology

Reduced form of bóol (“well”).

Adverb

bull (comparative péssor, superlative dar péste)

1. (Sette Comuni) well

References

• “bull” in Martalar, Umberto Martello; Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo

French

Etymology

From a clipped form of French bulldozer, from American English bulldozer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bul/, /byl/

Noun

bull m (plural bulls)

1. (construction) bulldozer

Synonyms

• bulldozer
• bouldozeur (with a Francized / Frenchified spelling)

Icelandic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?tl/
• Rhymes: -?tl

Noun

bull n (genitive singular bulls, no plural)

1. nonsense, gibberish

Declension

Synonyms

• rugl
• vitleysa
• þvæla

Related terms

• bulla (“to talk nonsense, to boil”)

Westrobothnian

Etymology 1

From Old Norse bolli, from Proto-Germanic *bullô.

Noun

bull m

1. wooden bowl, lathed vessel, big bowl

Etymology 2

From Proto-Germanic *bull?.

Noun

bull f

1. loaf

Derived terms

• bullsjiv
• bullstommel
• rågbull