BULL, n.

Signifies a bull, or large, or having a large head.

1. The male of the Bos, or bovine genus of quadrupeds, of which cow is the female.
2. In a Scriptural sense, an enemy, powerful, fierce and violent. Many bulls have compassed me. – Psalms.
3. Taurus, one of the twelve signs of the zodiac.

1. A letter, edict or rescript of the Pope, published or transmitted to the churches over which he is head, containing some decree, order or decision. It is used chiefly in matters of justice or of grace. If the former, the lead or seal is hung by a hempen cord; if the latter, by a silken thread. The lead or bull is impressed on one side with the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul; on the other with the name of the Pope and the year of his pontificate. The writing is in the old, round Gothic letter; and the instrument has about it a cross with some text of Scripture, or religious motto. – Lunier. Encyc. The Golden bull, so called from its golden seal, is an edict or imperial constitution, made by the Emperor Charles V., containing the fundamental law of the German empire. Leaden bulls were sent by the Emperors of Constantinople to patriarchs and princes; and by the grandees of the Empire, of France, Sicily, &c., and by patriarchs and bishops. Waxen bulls were in frequent use with the Greek Emperors, who thus sealed letters to their relations. – Encyc.
2. A blunder or contradiction. – Pope.

1. The male of any species of cattle (Bovidæ); hence, the male of any large quadruped, as the elephant; also, the male of the whale.
   
   

   * The wild bull of the Old Testament is thought to be the oryx, a large species of antelope.

2. Of or pertaining to a bull; resembling a bull; male; large; fierce.
   
   

   Bull bat (Zoöl.), the night hawk; -- so called from the loud noise it makes while feeding on the wing, in the evening. -- Bull calf. (a) A stupid fellow. -- Bull mackerel (Zoöl.), the chub mackerel. -- Bull pump (Mining), a direct single-acting pumping engine, in which the steam cylinder is placed above the pump. -- Bull snake (Zoöl.), the pine snake of the United States. -- Bull stag, a castrated bull. See Stag. -- Bull wheel, a wheel, or drum, on which a rope is wound for lifting heavy articles, as logs, the tools in well boring, etc.

3. To be in heat; to manifest sexual desire as cows do.
   
   
   [Colloq.]
4. To endeavor to raise the market price of; as, to bull railroad bonds; to bull stocks; to bull Lake Shore; to endeavor to raise prices in; as, to bull the market. See 1st Bull, n., 4.
5. A seal. See Bulla.
6. One who, or that which, resembles a bull in character or action.
   
   
   Ps. xxii. 12.
7. A letter, edict, or respect, of the pope, written in Gothic characters on rough parchment, sealed with a bulla, and dated "a die Incarnationis," i. e., "from the day of the Incarnation." See Apostolical brief, under Brief.
   
   

   A fresh bull of Leo's had declared how inflexible the court of Rome was in the point of abuses.
   Atterbury.

8. Taurus, the second of the twelve signs of the zodiac.
   
   
   (b)
9. A grotesque blunder in language; an apparent congruity, but real incongruity, of ideas, contained in a form of expression; so called, perhaps, from the apparent incongruity between the dictatorial nature of the pope's bulls and his professions of humility.
   
   

   And whereas the papist boasts himself to be a Roman Catholic, it is a mere contradiction, one of the pope's bulls, as if he should say universal particular; a Catholic schimatic.
   Milton.

   The Golden Bull, an edict or imperial constitution made by the emperor Charles IV. (1356), containing what became the fundamental law of the German empire; -- so called from its golden seal.

   Syn. -- See Blunder.

10. One who operates in expectation of a rise in the price of stocks, or in order to effect such a rise. See 4th Bear, n., 5.
    
    

    Bull baiting, the practice of baiting bulls, or rendering them furious, as by setting dogs to attack them. -- John Bull, a humorous name for the English, collectively; also, an Englishman. "Good-looking young John Bull." W. D.Howells. -- To take the bull by the horns, to grapple with a difficulty instead of avoiding it.