bulldog

English

Etymology

From bull +‎ dog, in reference to bullbaiting.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbʊl.dɒɡ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbʊl.dɔɡ/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈbʊl.dɑɡ/
• Hyphenation: bull‧dog

Noun

bulldog (plural bulldogs)

1. A breed of dog developed in England by the crossing of the bullbaiting dog and the Pug to produce a ladies' companion dog, having a very smooth coat, a flattened face, wrinkly cheeks, powerful front legs, and smaller hind legs.
   1. The original form of this breed, the British bulldog.
2. A stubborn or determined person.

   We need a lawyer who will fight for our case, a real bulldog.

   His bulldog determination was destined to bring him the opportunity he was seeking.

3. A refractory material used as a furnace lining, obtained by calcining the cinder or slag from the puddling furnace of a rolling mill.
4. (UK, Oxford University slang) One of the proctors' officers.
   • 2019, Thomas Merton, Patrick F. O'Connell, Medieval Cistercian History (page lxxiii)

     […] and was confronted by a “bulldog,” a proctor's assistant in charge of discipline, who asked if he was a member of the university since he wasn't wearing a gown, and he was able to say that he wasn't, […]

5. (professional wrestling) Any move in which the wrestler grabs an opponent's head and jumps forward, so that the wrestler lands, often in a sitting position, and drives the opponent's face into the mat.
6. (US, publishing) A bulldog edition.
   • 1940, Citizen Kane (film)

     The bulldog's just gone to press.

7. Any of various species of African freshwater fish in the genus Marcusenius, a type of elephantfish.
8. (chiefly UK, sometimes capitalized) The children's game of British Bulldog or Red Rover.
   • 2008 08, Christ Kennedy, Two Sons Nelson, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 304:

     "... playing bulldog in the yard so I know you're fit enough to fight. Have you decided when you're coming back?”

   • 2010 April 29, Bill Svelmoe, Spirits Eat Ripe Papaya, Wipf and Stock Publishers, →ISBN, page 138:

     […] playing bulldog on the plaza in front of the meeting hall.

   • 2018, Avril Brock, Pam Jarvis, Yinka Olusoga, Perspectives on Play: Learning for Life:

     […] playing bulldog, that game where you have two teams, one team runs and the other one catches. You have to run from […]

   • 2018 June 14, Irvine Welsh, A.L. Kennedy, Meera Syal, John Niven, Pauline Melville, Daisy Buchanan, Christopher Brookmyre, Zoe Venditozzi, Nina Stibbe, Mike Gayle, Murray Lachlan Young, Barney Farmer, 24 Stories: of Hope for Survivors of the Grenfell Tower Fire, Random House, →ISBN:

     Once Tyson skidded on some wet leaves when he and his friends were playing Bulldog in the park. As he lay on the ground they all laughed at him, even Ajay, and although he'd twisted his ankle, what hurt most was his pride.

Synonyms

• (breed of dog) English bulldog
• See also Thesaurus:stubborn person

Derived terms

Terms derived from bulldog (noun)

• British bulldog
• bulldog bat (Noctilio)
• bulldog clip
• bulldog edition
• bulldogger
• bulldoggish
• bulldog gravy
• bulldoggy
• bulldog rat
• bulldog scalp
• Dutch bulldog
• like a bulldog with a bone
• make a rabbit bite a bulldog
• white English bulldog

 

Related terms

• bull-bitch
• bull-pup

Descendants

• → French: bouledogue
• → German: Bulldogge
• → Portuguese: buldogue

Translations

breed of dog

Arabic: بلدغ Bulgarian: булдо́г (bg) m (buldóg) Chinese: Mandarin: 牛頭犬／牛头犬 (zh) (niútóuquǎn), 鬥牛犬／斗牛犬 (zh) (dòuniúquǎn) Czech: buldok (cs) m Dutch: buldog (nl) m Esperanto: buldogo Finnish: bulldoggi (fi) French: bouledogue (fr) m German: Bulldogge (de) f Greek: μπουλντόγκ (el) n (boulntógk) Hebrew: בולדוג m (buldog) Hungarian: buldog (hu) Ido: buldogo (io) Italian: bulldog (it) m Japanese: ブルドッグ (ja) (burudoggu) Korean: 불독 (ko) (buldok) Latin: molossus m Lithuanian: buldogas m Macedonian: булдог m (buldog) Malay: anjing bulldog Maltese: buldog Polish: buldog (pl) m Portuguese: bulldog (pt) m, buldogue (pt) m Russian: бульдо́г (ru) m (bulʹdóg) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: булдог m, самсов m Roman: buldog (sh) m, samsov (sh) m Slovene: buldog (sl) m Spanish: bulldog m, buldog m, dogo (es) m Swedish: bulldogg (sv) c Tagalog: buldog Volapük: toradoeg Yiddish: בולדאָג m (buldog)

British bulldog — see British bulldog

Verb

bulldog (third-person singular simple present bulldogs, present participle bulldogging, simple past and past participle bulldogged)

1. (intransitive, often with into or through) To force oneself (in a particular direction).

   Synonym: bull

   • 2019 March 6, Drachinifel, 14:01 from the start, in The Battle of Samar (Alternate History) - Bring on the Battleships!‎, archived from the original on 20 July 2022:

     So to give you some idea, we had scenarios where Yamato came steaming over the horizon and just bulldogged its way straight through the American battleline, and the whole thing was done and dusted inside of an hour, with 18-inch shells just blowing apart anything in sight.

2. (transitive) To chase (a steer) on horseback and wrestle it to the ground by twisting its horns (as a rodeo performance).

Further reading

• bulldog on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbul.dɔɡ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bull‧dog

Noun

bulldog m (plural bulldogs, diminutive bulldogje n)

1. Alternative form of buldog

   Synonym: bulhond

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English bulldog.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bul.dɔɡ/
• Rhymes: -uldɔɡ
• Hyphenation: bull‧dog

Noun

bulldog m (plural bulldogs)

1. Alternative spelling of bouledogue

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English bulldog.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /buwˈdɔ.ɡu.i/ [buʊ̯ˈdɔ.ɡʊ.i], /buwˈdɔ.ɡi/ [buʊ̯ˈdɔ.ɡi]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /bulˈdɔ.ɡi/ [buɫˈdɔ.ɣi]

• Hyphenation: bull‧dog

Noun

bulldog m (plural bulldogs)

1. Alternative spelling of buldogue

Spanish

Alternative forms

• buldog

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English bulldog.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bulˈdoɡ/ [bul̪ˈd̪oɣ̞]
• Rhymes: -oɡ

Noun

bulldog m (plural bulldogs)

1. bulldog

Usage notes

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.

Further reading

• “bulldog”, in Diccionario de la lengua española (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy, 2023 November 28