"bulldoze" meaning in All languages combined

See bulldoze on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

IPA: /ˈbʊldoʊz/ [General-American], /ˈbʊldəʊz/ [Received-Pronunciation] Audio: En-au-bulldoze.ogg [Australia] Forms: bulldozes [present, singular, third-person], bulldozing [participle, present], bulldozed [participle, past], bulldozed [past]
Etymology: From earlier bulldose (noun, literally “bull-dose, a dose fit for a bull”), equivalent to bull + dose. Etymology templates: {{m|en|bulldose|lit=bull-dose, a dose fit for a bull|pos=n}} bulldose (noun, literally “bull-dose, a dose fit for a bull”), {{compound|en|bull|dose}} bull + dose Head templates: {{en-verb}} bulldoze (third-person singular simple present bulldozes, present participle bulldozing, simple past and past participle bulldozed)
  1. To destroy with a bulldozer. Translations (to destroy with a bulldozer): جَرَّفَ (jarrafa) (Arabic), buldozi (Esperanto), tuhota puskutraktorilla (Finnish)
    Sense id: en-bulldoze-en-verb-QjIZ~emD Disambiguation of 'to destroy with a bulldozer': 86 1 3 7 2 2
  2. (UK) To push someone over by heading straight over them. Often used in conjunction with "over". Tags: UK Translations (to push someone over by heading straight over them): jyrätä [often] (Finnish)
    Sense id: en-bulldoze-en-verb-PX6JqmWY Categories (other): British English, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 5 29 21 5 17 22 Disambiguation of 'to push someone over by heading straight over them': 1 70 14 11 3 2
  3. To push through forcefully. Translations (to push through forcefully): puskea läpi (Finnish)
    Sense id: en-bulldoze-en-verb-T7l2BlUB Disambiguation of 'to push through forcefully': 2 6 77 5 8 3
  4. To push into a heap, as a bulldozer does.
    Sense id: en-bulldoze-en-verb-pRt0oFHw
  5. (UK) To shoot down an idea immediately and forcefully. Tags: UK Translations (to shoot down an idea): jyrätä (Finnish)
    Sense id: en-bulldoze-en-verb-dnQxBrQo Categories (other): British English Disambiguation of 'to shoot down an idea': 4 2 4 2 85 3
  6. (US, slang, dated) To intimidate; to restrain or coerce by intimidation or violence; used originally of the intimidation of black voters in Louisiana. Tags: US, dated, slang
    Sense id: en-bulldoze-en-verb-yVWtTc-j Categories (other): American English
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Translations (to push, as a bulldozer): puskea (Finnish)
Disambiguation of 'to push, as a bulldozer': 29 13 22 31 3 2

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for bulldoze meaning in All languages combined (9.1kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "bulldose",
        "lit": "bull-dose, a dose fit for a bull",
        "pos": "n"
      },
      "expansion": "bulldose (noun, literally “bull-dose, a dose fit for a bull”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "bull",
        "3": "dose"
      },
      "expansion": "bull + dose",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From earlier bulldose (noun, literally “bull-dose, a dose fit for a bull”), equivalent to bull + dose.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bulldozes",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bulldozing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bulldozed",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bulldozed",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "bulldoze (third-person singular simple present bulldozes, present participle bulldozing, simple past and past participle bulldozed)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "bull‧doze"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He's certainly very chirpy for a man whose house has just been bulldozed down.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 June 15, Coconuts Bangkok, “Chulalongkorn set to bulldoze historic Chinese-Thai shrine, build condos”, in coconuts.co, Bangkok: coconuts.co, retrieved 2020-06-16",
          "text": "Chulalongkorn [University] set to bulldoze historic Chinese-Thai shrine, build condos",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To destroy with a bulldozer."
      ],
      "id": "en-bulldoze-en-verb-QjIZ~emD",
      "links": [
        [
          "bulldozer",
          "bulldozer"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "86 1 3 7 2 2",
          "code": "ar",
          "lang": "Arabic",
          "roman": "jarrafa",
          "sense": "to destroy with a bulldozer",
          "word": "جَرَّفَ"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "86 1 3 7 2 2",
          "code": "eo",
          "lang": "Esperanto",
          "sense": "to destroy with a bulldozer",
          "word": "buldozi"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "86 1 3 7 2 2",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to destroy with a bulldozer",
          "word": "tuhota puskutraktorilla"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "5 29 21 5 17 22",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He just ran across the field bulldozing everyone over.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To push someone over by heading straight over them. Often used in conjunction with \"over\"."
      ],
      "id": "en-bulldoze-en-verb-PX6JqmWY",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK) To push someone over by heading straight over them. Often used in conjunction with \"over\"."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "1 70 14 11 3 2",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "raw_tags": [
            "with alleen"
          ],
          "sense": "to push someone over by heading straight over them",
          "tags": [
            "often"
          ],
          "word": "jyrätä"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2012 November 10, Amy Lawrence, “Fulham's Mark Schwarzer saves late penalty in dramatic draw at Arsenal”, in The Guardian",
          "text": "For the second time in a week, Wenger's team gave themselves an encouraging platform. In the 11th minute Theo Walcott drilled in a corner, and Olivier Giroud bulldozed through unopposed to thump the ball goalwards.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To push through forcefully."
      ],
      "id": "en-bulldoze-en-verb-T7l2BlUB",
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "2 6 77 5 8 3",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to push through forcefully",
          "word": "puskea läpi"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Again the animal had bulldozed all of its bedding into a heap at one end of its cage.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To push into a heap, as a bulldozer does."
      ],
      "id": "en-bulldoze-en-verb-pRt0oFHw"
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "That was a good suggestion, but you just bulldozed it.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To shoot down an idea immediately and forcefully."
      ],
      "id": "en-bulldoze-en-verb-dnQxBrQo",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK) To shoot down an idea immediately and forcefully."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "4 2 4 2 85 3",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to shoot down an idea",
          "word": "jyrätä"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1876 November, A. Straw, The Globe: An Illustrated Magazine, volume 4, page 108",
          "text": "Whatever may be the long delayed result of the election of 1876, there is one point which has not yet been commented on, and that is, its effect upon our language. There is no surer indication of the mightiness of a national event than this, that a number of new expressions and new words have been born into our common speech, through the strong travail of the times. You will find in the mouths of the people and the press at least three combinations of words which, in the strongest sense they are now used in, have never been there before. One of them is “Counted out,” or “Counted in.” Another is, “Wait for the returns,” and a third, pure slang, is, “bulldozed.” […] ”Wait for the returns,” has drifted from politics into business, religion, home and society, and bulldozed is the common word for intimidation in any of the extraordinary occupations of life.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1877 January, W.B.Chrisler, Bruce Carr, Sarah E. Turner, editor, The Common School Teacher: Devoted to the Cause of Common Schools, volume 2, page 113",
          "text": "The standard of qualifications for teachers has been very greatly advanced, till at the present day not one in ten of the old pedagogues who taught “readin’, ritin’ and ‘rithmetic,” and bulldozed unruly pupils with the birch, the beech or the willow rod, or in their absence the ferrule, would be able to procure a third grade or any grade certificate to be able to teach in the most secluded rural “deestrict” in all of the western states.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1877 February 3, “Varieties”, in Family Herald: A Domestic Magazine of Useful Information and Amusement, page 223",
          "text": "The practice of whipping and killing negroes in the Southern States was called bull-dozing. The word is a corruption of bull dose, or strong dose - in the sense that a bull fence is a strong fence. “Give him the bull dose” was the direction when a negro had to be severely punished.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1881 January 20, “Bulldozing A Bull. An Experiment in which a Mount Vernon man failed signally”, in Wit and Wisdom: From All the New York Papers and Every Humorous Paper in the Land, page 7",
          "text": "He endeavoured to persuade, then to drive, and lastly to bulldoze, and this is where he made a mistake that came near to ruining his future happiness. The bull lowered his head, uttered a war whoop, and, raising his antagonist from the face of the earth, sent him spinning through some twenty feet or more. […] The bull is now doing duty in a butcher’s shop as a stock in trade and (Mr William H.) Searing is nursing two sore ribs.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1895 August, James Chester, “Recollections of Reconstruction”, in The United Service: A monthly Review of Military and Naval Affairs, volume 14, chapter 2, page 130",
          "text": "In any effort to recall incidents of reconstruction, “bulldozing” and kindred slang expressions are sure to present themselves. It is impossible to avoid them, so they may as well be taken up first as last. “Bulldozing” is the new name for an old deviltry. It is the last stage of negro intimidation, and is sometimes known as “the Mississippi plan”. There have been three stages in the development, - namely, “mule-lifting”, “ku-kluxing” and “bulldozing. Ku-kluxing was he keystone of the arch of intimidation. It was secret, cruel, relentless, and bloody, and, shall I say? cowardly. It whipped, and murdered, and burned behind a mask. Bulldozing was simply ku-kluxing with the mask thrown aside. It was cruel, relentless, and bloody, but not secret. It trusted for safety to its strength and - save the mark! - respectability!",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To intimidate; to restrain or coerce by intimidation or violence; used originally of the intimidation of black voters in Louisiana."
      ],
      "id": "en-bulldoze-en-verb-yVWtTc-j",
      "links": [
        [
          "intimidate",
          "intimidate"
        ],
        [
          "restrain",
          "restrain"
        ],
        [
          "coerce",
          "coerce"
        ],
        [
          "violence",
          "violence"
        ],
        [
          "Louisiana",
          "Louisiana"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, slang, dated) To intimidate; to restrain or coerce by intimidation or violence; used originally of the intimidation of black voters in Louisiana."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "dated",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbʊldoʊz/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbʊldəʊz/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-bulldoze.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/2a/En-au-bulldoze.ogg/En-au-bulldoze.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/En-au-bulldoze.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "_dis1": "29 13 22 31 3 2",
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to push, as a bulldozer",
      "word": "puskea"
    }
  ],
  "word": "bulldoze"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English 2-syllable words",
    "English compound terms",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "bulldose",
        "lit": "bull-dose, a dose fit for a bull",
        "pos": "n"
      },
      "expansion": "bulldose (noun, literally “bull-dose, a dose fit for a bull”)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "bull",
        "3": "dose"
      },
      "expansion": "bull + dose",
      "name": "compound"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From earlier bulldose (noun, literally “bull-dose, a dose fit for a bull”), equivalent to bull + dose.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bulldozes",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bulldozing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bulldozed",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bulldozed",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "bulldoze (third-person singular simple present bulldozes, present participle bulldozing, simple past and past participle bulldozed)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "bull‧doze"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He's certainly very chirpy for a man whose house has just been bulldozed down.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 June 15, Coconuts Bangkok, “Chulalongkorn set to bulldoze historic Chinese-Thai shrine, build condos”, in coconuts.co, Bangkok: coconuts.co, retrieved 2020-06-16",
          "text": "Chulalongkorn [University] set to bulldoze historic Chinese-Thai shrine, build condos",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To destroy with a bulldozer."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "bulldozer",
          "bulldozer"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "He just ran across the field bulldozing everyone over.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To push someone over by heading straight over them. Often used in conjunction with \"over\"."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK) To push someone over by heading straight over them. Often used in conjunction with \"over\"."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2012 November 10, Amy Lawrence, “Fulham's Mark Schwarzer saves late penalty in dramatic draw at Arsenal”, in The Guardian",
          "text": "For the second time in a week, Wenger's team gave themselves an encouraging platform. In the 11th minute Theo Walcott drilled in a corner, and Olivier Giroud bulldozed through unopposed to thump the ball goalwards.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To push through forcefully."
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Again the animal had bulldozed all of its bedding into a heap at one end of its cage.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To push into a heap, as a bulldozer does."
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "That was a good suggestion, but you just bulldozed it.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To shoot down an idea immediately and forcefully."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK) To shoot down an idea immediately and forcefully."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English dated terms",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1876 November, A. Straw, The Globe: An Illustrated Magazine, volume 4, page 108",
          "text": "Whatever may be the long delayed result of the election of 1876, there is one point which has not yet been commented on, and that is, its effect upon our language. There is no surer indication of the mightiness of a national event than this, that a number of new expressions and new words have been born into our common speech, through the strong travail of the times. You will find in the mouths of the people and the press at least three combinations of words which, in the strongest sense they are now used in, have never been there before. One of them is “Counted out,” or “Counted in.” Another is, “Wait for the returns,” and a third, pure slang, is, “bulldozed.” […] ”Wait for the returns,” has drifted from politics into business, religion, home and society, and bulldozed is the common word for intimidation in any of the extraordinary occupations of life.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1877 January, W.B.Chrisler, Bruce Carr, Sarah E. Turner, editor, The Common School Teacher: Devoted to the Cause of Common Schools, volume 2, page 113",
          "text": "The standard of qualifications for teachers has been very greatly advanced, till at the present day not one in ten of the old pedagogues who taught “readin’, ritin’ and ‘rithmetic,” and bulldozed unruly pupils with the birch, the beech or the willow rod, or in their absence the ferrule, would be able to procure a third grade or any grade certificate to be able to teach in the most secluded rural “deestrict” in all of the western states.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1877 February 3, “Varieties”, in Family Herald: A Domestic Magazine of Useful Information and Amusement, page 223",
          "text": "The practice of whipping and killing negroes in the Southern States was called bull-dozing. The word is a corruption of bull dose, or strong dose - in the sense that a bull fence is a strong fence. “Give him the bull dose” was the direction when a negro had to be severely punished.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1881 January 20, “Bulldozing A Bull. An Experiment in which a Mount Vernon man failed signally”, in Wit and Wisdom: From All the New York Papers and Every Humorous Paper in the Land, page 7",
          "text": "He endeavoured to persuade, then to drive, and lastly to bulldoze, and this is where he made a mistake that came near to ruining his future happiness. The bull lowered his head, uttered a war whoop, and, raising his antagonist from the face of the earth, sent him spinning through some twenty feet or more. […] The bull is now doing duty in a butcher’s shop as a stock in trade and (Mr William H.) Searing is nursing two sore ribs.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1895 August, James Chester, “Recollections of Reconstruction”, in The United Service: A monthly Review of Military and Naval Affairs, volume 14, chapter 2, page 130",
          "text": "In any effort to recall incidents of reconstruction, “bulldozing” and kindred slang expressions are sure to present themselves. It is impossible to avoid them, so they may as well be taken up first as last. “Bulldozing” is the new name for an old deviltry. It is the last stage of negro intimidation, and is sometimes known as “the Mississippi plan”. There have been three stages in the development, - namely, “mule-lifting”, “ku-kluxing” and “bulldozing. Ku-kluxing was he keystone of the arch of intimidation. It was secret, cruel, relentless, and bloody, and, shall I say? cowardly. It whipped, and murdered, and burned behind a mask. Bulldozing was simply ku-kluxing with the mask thrown aside. It was cruel, relentless, and bloody, but not secret. It trusted for safety to its strength and - save the mark! - respectability!",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To intimidate; to restrain or coerce by intimidation or violence; used originally of the intimidation of black voters in Louisiana."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "intimidate",
          "intimidate"
        ],
        [
          "restrain",
          "restrain"
        ],
        [
          "coerce",
          "coerce"
        ],
        [
          "violence",
          "violence"
        ],
        [
          "Louisiana",
          "Louisiana"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, slang, dated) To intimidate; to restrain or coerce by intimidation or violence; used originally of the intimidation of black voters in Louisiana."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "dated",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbʊldoʊz/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbʊldəʊz/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-bulldoze.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/2a/En-au-bulldoze.ogg/En-au-bulldoze.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/En-au-bulldoze.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "ar",
      "lang": "Arabic",
      "roman": "jarrafa",
      "sense": "to destroy with a bulldozer",
      "word": "جَرَّفَ"
    },
    {
      "code": "eo",
      "lang": "Esperanto",
      "sense": "to destroy with a bulldozer",
      "word": "buldozi"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to destroy with a bulldozer",
      "word": "tuhota puskutraktorilla"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "raw_tags": [
        "with alleen"
      ],
      "sense": "to push someone over by heading straight over them",
      "tags": [
        "often"
      ],
      "word": "jyrätä"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to push through forcefully",
      "word": "puskea läpi"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to push, as a bulldozer",
      "word": "puskea"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to shoot down an idea",
      "word": "jyrätä"
    }
  ],
  "word": "bulldoze"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.