BULLY
What does "BULLY" mean?
A person who habitually intimidates or mistreats those who are weaker.
Meanings
- Someone who uses strength or power to frighten or hurt weaker people. The new kid stood up to the playground bully and the whole class went quiet.
- To intimidate, coerce, or push someone around. They bullied him into signing before he could read the fine print.
- Excellent or first-rate (now dated, chiefly in the phrase 'bully for you'). Bully! cried the captain when the catch came aboard. archaic
Did you know?
- For its first hundred years in English, 'bully' was a compliment - it meant 'sweetheart' or 'fine fellow', and only curdled into 'tormentor' by the 1700s.
Word origin
From Middle Dutch 'boele' (lover, brother), originally a term of endearment in English; the meaning soured over the 1600s into 'swaggering ruffian' and then 'tormentor of the weak'.
Remember it
A BULLY pushes you around like a BULL with a Y-shaped horn.
A little poem
He counts on the smaller crowd to flinch,
and they do, for a year, an inch at a time-
until one stays standing, and the trick is gone.
tercet
What it teaches
A bully's power is borrowed from your fear; the day you stop lending it, the loan is called in.
Quick facts
What does BULLY mean?
A person who habitually intimidates or mistreats those who are weaker.
Is BULLY a valid word?
Yes — BULLY is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is BULLY?
BULLY has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does BULLY come from?
From Middle Dutch 'boele' (lover, brother), originally a term of endearment in English; the meaning soured over the 1600s into 'swaggering ruffian' and then 'tormentor of the weak'.
What can BULLY teach us?
A bully's power is borrowed from your fear; the day you stop lending it, the loan is called in.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.