bully

(field hockey) bully (way of resuming the game with a standoff between two opposing players who repeatedly hit each other's sticks, then try to gain possession of the ball)

Borrowed from English bully, itself a derivation of Dutch boel (“lover; brother”).


bully

A playground bully pushed a girl off the swing.

I noticed you being a bully towards people with disabilities.

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.

Besides, bullies seldom execute the threats they deal in; and men of trick and cunning are not always men of desperate resolves.

1840 September 22, Lord Palmerston, The Life of Henry John Temple, Viscount of Palmerston, 3rd edition, volume 2, published 1871, page 327:

A noisy, blustering, tyrannical person, more insolent than courageous; one who is threatening and quarrelsome.

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.

1849, John McLean, Notes of a Twenty-Five Years' Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory, pages 42–3:

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 […].

2009, Dan Cruikshank, Secret History of Georgian London, Random House, page 473:

What sayest thou, Bully Bottom?

c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

The small scrum in the Eton College field game.

Any of various small freshwater or brackishwater fish of the family Eleotridae; sleeper gobies.

Frae Team Gut to Whitley, we' coals black an' brown
For the Amphitrite loaded, the keel had come down—
But the bullies ower neet had their gobs se oft wet,
That the nyem o' the ship yen an' a' did forget.

1824, Robert Gilchrist, “The Skipper's Erudition”, in A Collection of Original Local Songs, page 11:

(obsolete or dialectal, Ireland and Northern England) An (eldest) brother; a fellow workman; comrade

(dialectal) A companion; mate (male or female).

I kiss his dirty shoe, and from heart-string / I love the lovely bully. What is thy name?

1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

I have promised to be with the sweet bully early in the morning of her important day.

1753, Samuel Richardson, “Letter 15”, in The History of Sir Charles Grandison:

What! manim-an—kiss your child, man alive. That I may never, but he looks at the darlin’ as if it was a sod of turf! Throth you’re not worthy of havin’ such a bully.

1848, William Carleton, Fardorougha the Miser, page 16:

(obsolete) A darling, sweetheart (male or female).

(field hockey) A standoff between two players from the opposing teams, who repeatedly hit each other's hockey sticks and then attempt to acquire the ball, as a method of resuming the game in certain circumstances.

en-noun

bully (countable and uncountable, plural bullies)

boelie

a person who is intentionally cruel to others

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 person who is cruel to others’. Possibly influenced by bull (“male cattle”) or via the ‘prostitute's minder’ sense. The positive senses are dated, but survive in phrases such as bully pulpit.

onomatopoeic

expressive


bully

You shouldn't bully people for being weak.

Bradly's stomach kinked in on itself, thinking of Cora struck silly with that corpse on her hands and the copper bullying the truth out of her.

1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 218:

United States Sen. Marsha Blackburn on Thursday became the latest member of Congress to visit Taiwan defying pressure from Beijing, saying, "I will not be bullied by Communist China into turning my back on the island."

2022 August 26, Brad Lendon, “'Xi Jinping doesn't scare me': US Sen. Marsha Blackburn lands in Taiwan, vows not to be bullied by China”, in CNN, archived from the original on 2022-08-26:

(transitive) To intimidate (someone) as a bully.

The Potters know their strengths and played to them perfectly here, out-muscling Bolton in midfield and bullying the visitors' back-line at every opportunity.

2011 January 15, Sam Sheringham, “Chelsea 2 -03 Blackburn Rovers”, in BBC:

(transitive) To act aggressively towards.

en-verb

bully (third-person singular simple present bullies, present participle bullying, simple past and past participle bullied)

bullies (present singular third-person)
bullying (participle present)
bullied (participle past)
bullied (past)

onomatopoeic

expressive


bully

a bully horse

To sing a bully song I'll try, / Bully for you, bully for you, / Gay as they make them, here I am, / Bully for you, for you.

1861, Daniel Bryant, Bryant's Songs from Dixie's Land, page 19:

She is a bully woman, not only a good mother, but a wonderful in-law

1916, The Independent, volumes 35-36, page 6:

Bless thee, bully doctor!

1597, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, act II, scene iii:

(slang, obsolete) Jovial and blustering.

en-adj

bully (comparative bullier, superlative bulliest)

bullier (comparative)
bulliest (superlative)

onomatopoeic

expressive


bully

Bully, she's finally asked for that promotion!

Bully! Bully! Finis coronet opus, “the end crowns all”; “may the last be the best!” By Godfrey it was delightful.

1979, Jerome Alden, Bully: An Adventure with Teddy Roosevelt, →OCLC, page 3:

expressive


bully

es-noun

bully m or f by sense (plural bullys or bullies or bully)

bullys (plural)
bullies (plural)
bully (plural)