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The term acquired negative senses during the 17th century; first ‘noisy, blustering fellow’ then ‘a person who is cruel to others’. Possibly influenced by bull(“male cattle”) or via the ‘prostitute's minder’ sense. The positive senses are dated, but survive in phrases such as bully pulpit.
A person who is intentionally physically or emotionally cruel to others, especially to those whom they perceive as being vulnerable or of less power or privilege.
A playground bully pushed a girl off the swing.
I noticed you being a bully towards people with disabilities.
A noisy, blustering, tyrannical person, more insolent than courageous; one who is threatening and quarrelsome.
1840 September 22, Lord Palmerston, The Life of Henry John Temple, Viscount of Palmerston, 3rd edition, volume 2, published 1871, page 327:
Besides, bullies seldom execute the threats they deal in; and men of trick and cunning are not always men of desperate resolves.
Mr. Fisher returned from town... he had learnt that our opponents intended to shift the scene of operations to the Chats... We understood that they had hired two bullies for the purpose of deciding the matter par voie de fait. Mr Fisher hired two of the same description, who were supposed to be more than a match for the opposition party.
2009, Dan Cruikshank, Secret History of Georgian London, Random House, page 473:
The Proclamation Society and the Society for the Suppression of Vice were more concerned with obscene literature […] than with hands-on street battles with prostitutes and their bullies […].
Frae Team Gut to Whitley, we' coals black an' brown For the Amphitrite loaded, the keel had come down— But the bullies ower neet had their gobs se oft wet, That the nyem o' the ship yen an' a' did forget.
What! manim-an—kiss your child, man alive. That I may never, but he looks at the darlin’ as if it was a sod of turf! Throth you’re not worthy of havin’ such a bully.
(field hockey) A standoff between two players from the opposing teams, who repeatedly hit each other's hockey sticks and then attempt to acquire the ball, as a method of resuming the game in certain circumstances.
1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 218:
Bradly's stomach kinked in on itself, thinking of Cora struck silly with that corpse on her hands and the copper bullying the truth out of her.
2022 August 26, Brad Lendon, “'Xi Jinping doesn't scare me': US Sen. Marsha Blackburn lands in Taiwan, vows not to be bullied by China”, in CNN, archived from the original on 26 August 2022:
United States Sen. Marsha Blackburn on Thursday became the latest member of Congress to visit Taiwan defying pressure from Beijing, saying, "I will not be bullied by Communist China into turning my back on the island."
2011 January 15, Sam Sheringham, “Chelsea 2 -03 Blackburn Rovers”, in BBC:
The Potters know their strengths and played to them perfectly here, out-muscling Bolton in midfield and bullying the visitors' back-line at every opportunity.
^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “bully”, in Online Etymology Dictionary, retrieved 2017-05-05.: “Meaning deteriorated 17c. through "fine fellow" and "blusterer" to "harasser of the weak" (1680s, from bully-ruffian, 1650s).”
(field hockey)bully(way of resuming the game with a standoff between two opposing players who repeatedly hit each other's sticks, then try to gain possession of the ball)
According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.