bully

1. 1.

   be bossy towards

   “Her big brother always bullied her when she was young”

   Synonymsstrong-armbrowbeatbullyragballyragboss aroundhectorpush around

   Broaderintimidate

   Narrowertyrannize
2. 2.

   discourage or frighten with threats or a domineering manner; intimidate

   Synonymsbrowbeatswagger

   Broaderwheedle

1. 1.

   very good

   “he did a bully job”

   “a neat sports car”

   “had a great time at the party”

   “you look simply smashing”

   “we had a grand old time”

   Synonymsbang-upcorkingcrackingdandygreatgroovykeenneatniftynot badpeachyslap-upswellsmashing

   Similargood

   colloquialism

Other forms of bully

plural

bullies·

past tense or participle

bullied

present participle

bullying·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about bully

What does bully mean?

bully means "a cruel and brutal fellow". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in bully?

bully has 2 syllables: bul-ly. The stress falls on "bul". In IPA it is /ˈbʊli/.

What is another word for bully?

Close synonyms include tough, hooligan, ruffian, roughneck, rowdy. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is bully a common word?

bully is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.