bully
B2Meanings
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1
adj
very good, as in much better than average
They did a bully job.
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2
verb
to discourage or frighten with threats or a domineering manner
They bullied me into giving them my lunch money.
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3
verb
to be bossy towards
The mean kid bullied all the rest of the class.
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4
noun
A person who is intentionally physically or emotionally cruel to others, especially to those whom they perceive as being vulnerable or of less power or privilege.
A playground bully pushed a girl off the swing.
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5
noun
A noisy, blustering, tyrannical person, more insolent than courageous; one who is threatening and quarrelsome.
Besides, bullies seldom execute the threats they deal in; and men of trick and cunning are not always men of desperate resolves.
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6
noun
A hired thug.
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.
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7
noun
A sex worker's minder.
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 […].
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8
noun
A brisk, dashing fellow.
What sayest thou, Bully Bottom?
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 *bōlô (compare Middle Low German bôle (“brother”), Middle High German buole (“brother; close relative; close relation”) (whence German Buhle (“lover”)), Old English Bōla, Bōlla (personal name), diminutive of expressive *bō- (“brother, father”). Compare also Latvian bālinš (“brother”). More at boy. The term acquired a negative connotation during the 17th century; first ‘noisy, blustering fellow’ then ‘a p…
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