bulk

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the property of something that is great in magnitude

   it is cheaper to buy it in bulk

2. 2
   verb

   to cause to bulge or swell outwards

   The bag was bulking.

3. 3
   verb

   to stick out or up

   The parcel bulked in the sack.

4. 4
   noun

   Size, specifically, volume.

   The Quantity of Matter is the measure of the same, arising from its density and bulk conjunctly.

5. 5
   noun

   Any huge body or structure.

   The obese woman couldn't ease her bulk through the narrow passageway.

6. 6
   noun

   The major part of something.

   In the case of such a contract, there must be an implied condition that the bulk shall correspond with the sample in quality

7. 7
   noun

   The body.

   ...haunted the chocolate-houses, beat the watch, lay on bulks, and got claps;

8. 8
   adj

   Total.

   Bulk fermentation

Etymology

From Middle English bulk, bolke (“a heap, cargo, hold; heap; bulge”), borrowed from Old Norse búlki (“the freight or the cargo of a ship”), from Proto-Germanic *bulkô (“beam, pile, heap”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵ- (“beam, pile, prop”). Compare Icelandic búlkast (“to be bulky”), Swedish dialectal bulk (“a bunch”), Danish bulk (“bump, knob”). Conflated with Middle English bouk (“belly, trunk”).