Meaning & use
bully
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Meanings
nouncountabledisapproving
Someone who regularly frightens or hurts people who are weaker, or tries to force them to do things.
Grammar: Countable: a school bully, two bullies.
Patterns
- the bully of something
The school bully took lunch money from smaller kids.
Nobody likes a workplace bully who shouts at others.
She stood up to the bully who had been teasing her brother.
verbtransitive
To frighten, hurt or pressure someone weaker again and again.
Grammar: Takes an object: they bullied him; often with into: bully someone into something.
Patterns
- bully someone
- bully someone into doing something
Older boys bullied him on the bus every day.
She refused to be bullied into signing the form.
The manager was accused of bullying his team.
Word forms
| plural | bullies |
|---|---|
| third person singular | bullies |
| past tense | bullied |
| past participle | bullied |
| -ing form | bullying |
Common combinations
- school bully
- The school bully was finally suspended.
- bully someone into
- Don't let anyone bully you into a decision.
- stand up to a bully
- It takes courage to stand up to a bully.
- cyberbully
- Online, a cyberbully can reach victims at any hour.
- bully pulpit
- The president used his bully pulpit to promote the plan.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tyrant
- Tyrant suggests a cruel ruler with real power, while bully is more often used for ordinary settings like schools.
- intimidate
- Intimidate means to frighten into obeying, and it can be a single act, whereas bully usually means repeated behavior.
- harass
- Harass stresses constant annoyance or pressure and is common in legal contexts, while bully suggests physical or social power over someone.
- persecute
- Persecute means to treat cruelly because of who someone is, usually on a larger scale than bullying.
Opposites
Word family
- bullying noun
- repeated cruel behavior toward someone weaker
- bullied adjective
- having been treated cruelly by a bully
- cyberbullying noun
- bullying done online
- antibullying adjective
- aimed at stopping bullying
Commonly confused: bully or bull?
bully vs bull
A bull is a male cow, and although bully looks similar the two words have no shared meaning today.
Practice
Which sentence uses bully as a verb?
Choose one answer.
In the second sentence bully is a verb meaning to pressure someone, with an object. The other sentences use bully as a noun for a person.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “bully”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.