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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

3 entries under this word

Bull

Bŭll, n.

noun

n. [L. Ger. bulle, bolle, D. bul, Icel. boli, bauli, Lith. bullus, Lett. bollis, Slav. volŭ, Bohem. wole, Pol. wol, Ir. bolan, a full-grown cow, bolog, heifer. The root is in A-S. bellan, to bellow, roar, bark.]

Sense 1. (Zoöl.) The male of any bovine quadruped, or of the different species of the genus Bos; hence, the male of any large quadruped, as the elephant.

Sense 2. (Astron.) Taurus, one of the twelve signs of the zodiac.

At last from Aries rolls the bounteous sun, And the bright Bull receives him. Thomson.

Sense 3. (Stock Exchange.) One who operates in expectation of a rise in the price of stocks, and especially one who operates with others in order to effect such a rise. See BEAR.

Bŭll, a.

adjective

a. Of large size; — used in composition; as, bull-head, bulrush, bull-trout, &c.

Bŭll, n.

noun

n. [Lat. bulla, any thing rounded by art, L. Lat. a seal or stamp, letter, edict, roll, It. bulla, bolla, Fr. bulle.]

  1. The seal appended to the edicts and briefs of the pope. See BILL.
  2. A letter, edict, or rescript of the pope, transmitted to the churches over which he is head, containing some decree, order, or decision.

A fresh bull of Leo's . . . declared how inflexible the court of Rome was in the point of abuses. Atterbury. 3. A blunder or contradiction; more exactly, an apparent congruity, but real incongruity, of ideas, suddenly discovered; as, an Irish bull; — so called, perhaps, from the striking contrast between the humble professions of the pope, as, for example, his styling himself a “servant of servants,” and the absolute and despotic nature of the commands, or bulls, issued by him. 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 schismatic. Milton. The Golden Bull, an edict or imperial constitution made by the emperor Charles IV. (1356), containing the fundamental law of the German empire; — so called from its golden seal.