How do you use the word "bull" in a sentence?

Q: How do you use the word "bull" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "bull": You've got to take the bull by the horns! The old men like to meet on the street corner just to shoot the bull.

Bull Meaning

/bʊl/

Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounAn adult male of domesticated cattle or oxen.

nounAn adult male, specifically:, An adult male of domesticated cattle or oxen., Specifically, one that is uncastrated.

Sentence Examples

You've got to take the bull by the horns!

The old men like to meet on the street corner just to shoot the bull.

The angry bull charged towards the red cape of the matador.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

fake crap bullshit

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

The farmer warned us to stay away from the ____ because it was very aggressive.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

A large ____ was standing in the middle of the field on the farm tonight.

Word Origin & History

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-der. Proto-Germanic *bulô Old English bula ▲ Proto-Germanic *bulô Old Norse bolibor. Middle English bole English bull From Middle English bole, bul, bule, from a conflation of Old English bula (“bull, steer”) and Old Norse boli, both from Proto-Germanic *bulô (“bull”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰl̥no-, from *bʰel- (“to blow, swell up”). Cognate with West Frisian bolle, Dutch bul, German Low German Bull, German Bulle, Swedish bulla; also Old Irish ball (“limb”), Latin follis (“bellows, leather bag”), Albanian bolle (“testicles”), Ancient Greek φαλλός (phallós, “penis”). Of sense 11, (a man or boy), derived from the Philadelphia English pronunciation of boy, which is practically a homophone of bull.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"The quick eyes of a female caught sight of him first. With a barking guttural she called the attention of the others. Several huge bulls stood erect to get a better view of the intruder. With bared fangs and bristling necks they advanced slowly toward him, with deep-throated, ominous growls." — 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 196:

"The upshot of the affair was that she accompanied me next morning. I rowed into the adjoining cove and up to the edge of the beach. There were seals all about us in the water, and the bellowing thousands on the beach compelled us to shout at each other to make ourselves heard. "I know men club them," I said, trying to reassure myself and gazing doubtfully at a large bull, not thirty feet away, upreared on his fore-flippers and regarding me intently. "But the question is, How do they club them?"" — 1904, Jack London, chapter 30, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC:

"Meanwhile the Tommies had discovered several large tins of ham in the captured lorry. 'That,' said the big Nazi, 'is for our tea.' 'No,' said a Tommy sergeant-major. 'That's for our tea. For you, chummy, we've kept a nice bit of bull.'" — 1949, Stephen Peter Llewellyn, Journey Towards Christmas, page 142:

"This accompt has been made to appear a bull accompt, i.e. that the bulls cannot take their stock. The fact is the reverse; it is a bear accompt, but the bears, unable to deliver their stock, have conjointly banged the market, and pocketed the tickets, to defeat the rise and loss that would have ensued to them by their buying on a rising price on the accompt day […]" — 1821, Bank of England, The Bank - The Stock Exchange - The Bankers ..., page 64:

"Bulls are hoping the prosecutions draw a line under the sector's troubled past and will allow it to tap billions of dollars of cash from Wall Street." — 2023 December 9, Scott Chipolina, “Unlikely resurgence for bitcoin as bulls bet on Wall Street adoption”, in FT Weekend (Companies & Markets section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 15:

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