I. bull 1 /bʊl/ BrE AmE noun
[ Sense 1-3, 5-6, 8-9: Language: Old English ; Origin: bula ]
[ Sense 4: Date: 1900-2000 ; Origin: bullshit ]
[ Sense 7: Date: 1200-1300 ; Language: Medieval Latin ; Origin: bulla ]
1 . MALE COW [countable] an adult male animal of the cattle family:
a herd of cows with one bull
2 . MALE ANIMAL [countable] the male of some other large animals such as the ↑ elephant or ↑ whale
3 . take the bull by the horns to bravely or confidently deal with a difficult, dangerous, or unpleasant problem:
Nora decided to take the bull by the horns and organize things for herself.
4 . NONSENSE [uncountable] informal nonsense or something that is completely untrue SYN rubbish :
What a load of bull!
5 . like a bull in a china shop if you are like a bull in a china shop, you keep knocking things over, dropping things, breaking things etc
6 . like a bull at a gate if you move somewhere like a bull at a gate, you move there very fast, ignoring everything in your way
7 . RELIGION [countable] an official statement from the Pope
8 . CENTRE [countable] ( also bullseye ) the centre of a ↑ target that you are shooting at
9 . BUSINESS [countable] technical someone who buys ↑ share s because they expect prices to rise ⇨ bear ⇨ BULL MARKET,
⇨ cock and bull story at ↑ cock 1 (4), ⇨ like a red rag to a bull at ↑ red 1 (5), ⇨ shoot the bull at ↑ shoot 1 (13)
II. bull 2 BrE AmE interjection
[ Date: 1900-2000 ; Origin: ⇨ ↑ bull 1 (2) ]
used to say that you do not believe or agree with what someone has said:
Bull! Where did you get that idea?