"pit bull" meaning in English

See pit bull in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: pit bulls [plural], pitbull [alternative], pit-bull [alternative]
Etymology: Clipping of pit bull terrier. Etymology templates: {{clip|en|pit bull terrier}} Clipping of pit bull terrier Head templates: {{en-noun}} pit bull (plural pit bulls)
  1. A pit bull terrier. Derived forms: shitbull
    Sense id: en-pit_bull-en-noun-WhBDxBAh Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 76 24 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 54 46 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 71 29
  2. (figurative, often derogatory) A person with a reputation for pugnacity. Tags: derogatory, figuratively, often
    Sense id: en-pit_bull-en-noun-02AYvDKV Categories (other): Pages with 1 entry Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 54 46

Inflected forms

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  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "pit bull terrier"
      },
      "expansion": "Clipping of pit bull terrier",
      "name": "clip"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Clipping of pit bull terrier.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "pit bulls",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pitbull",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pit-bull",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "pit bull (plural pit bulls)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "76 24",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "54 46",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "71 29",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "word": "shitbull"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A pit bull terrier."
      ],
      "id": "en-pit_bull-en-noun-WhBDxBAh",
      "links": [
        [
          "pit bull terrier",
          "pit bull terrier"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "54 46",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              28,
              36
            ]
          ],
          "text": "You don't have to be such a pit bull about it. I was only joking.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              15,
              23
            ]
          ],
          "text": "My lawyer is a pit bull — he latches on and doesn't stop until he wins!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              30,
              38
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1993 July 6, “Profile Israel's Pit Bull of Politics Takes on Jerusalem Mayor”, in Los Angeles Times:",
          "text": "Ehud Olmert has long been the pit bull of Israel's right-wing Likud Party, always ready to tear into a political foe",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person with a reputation for pugnacity."
      ],
      "id": "en-pit_bull-en-noun-02AYvDKV",
      "links": [
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          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ],
        [
          "reputation",
          "reputation"
        ],
        [
          "pugnacity",
          "pugnacity"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative, often derogatory) A person with a reputation for pugnacity."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory",
        "figuratively",
        "often"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "pit bull"
}
{
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    "English clippings",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
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  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
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      },
      "expansion": "Clipping of pit bull terrier",
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    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Clipping of pit bull terrier.",
  "forms": [
    {
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      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pitbull",
      "tags": [
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      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "pit-bull",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "pit bull (plural pit bulls)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A pit bull terrier."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "pit bull terrier",
          "pit bull terrier"
        ]
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        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
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          "bold_text_offsets": [
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              28,
              36
            ]
          ],
          "text": "You don't have to be such a pit bull about it. I was only joking.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              15,
              23
            ]
          ],
          "text": "My lawyer is a pit bull — he latches on and doesn't stop until he wins!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
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              30,
              38
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1993 July 6, “Profile Israel's Pit Bull of Politics Takes on Jerusalem Mayor”, in Los Angeles Times:",
          "text": "Ehud Olmert has long been the pit bull of Israel's right-wing Likud Party, always ready to tear into a political foe",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person with a reputation for pugnacity."
      ],
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        ],
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          "reputation",
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        ],
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        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative, often derogatory) A person with a reputation for pugnacity."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory",
        "figuratively",
        "often"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "pit bull"
}

Download raw JSONL data for pit bull meaning in English (1.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). 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.