Meaning & use
bullock
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A young male cow; a bull that is not yet fully grown.
Grammar: Countable; the plural is bullocks. Used in farming contexts.
Patterns
- a young bullock
- a herd of bullocks
A young bullock stood beside its mother at the edge of the field.
The farmer keeps his bullocks separate from the breeding bulls.
nouncountableBritish
A male cow that has been castrated and is raised for beef or trained as a work animal.
Grammar: Countable; in American English the equivalent word is steer.
Patterns
- raise bullocks
- a team of bullocks
- a bullock cart
In the village, teams of bullocks still pull the plows through the rice fields.
He raises bullocks for beef on his farm in Queensland.
Word forms
| plural | bullocks |
|---|
Common combinations
- a team of bullocks
- A team of bullocks dragged the heavy cart out of the mud.
- bullock cart
- Tourists rode through the old town in a wooden bullock cart.
- raise bullocks
- The family raises bullocks for the local beef market.
Synonyms and how they differ
- steer
- The usual American term for a castrated male cow raised for beef; bullock is the British and Commonwealth equivalent.
- young bull
- Accurate only for the age sense; a bullock used for work or beef is typically castrated, which a bull is not.
Word family
- bull noun
- A fully grown male cow, kept for breeding; a bullock is younger or castrated.
Commonly confused: bullock or bull? bullock or buffalo?
bullock vs bull
A bull is an adult uncastrated male kept for breeding; a bullock is young or castrated and usually calmer and smaller.
bullock vs buffalo
A buffalo is a different, larger animal; the words share the opening 'bul-' but nothing else.
Practice
A bullock is best described as ___.
Choose one answer.
A bullock is a young male cow, or one castrated and raised for beef or farm work. The milk-producing female is a cow, and buffaloes and horses are different animals entirely.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “bullock”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.