gull
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Gull
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English gulle, from a Brythonic language, from Proto-Brythonic *gwuɨlann, from Proto-Celtic *wēlannā (“seagull”). Cognate with Welsh gwylan, Cornish goolan, Breton gouelan, Old Irish faílenn, Scottish Gaelic faoileag. Compare French goéland, a borrowing from Breton. Eclipsed Middle English lare (“seabird, gull”), borrowed from Latin larus.
Noun
gull (plural gulls)
- A seabird of the genus Larus or of the family Laridae.
- 1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 8:
- The tide was out, and we drew up amid the strong bracing smell of seaweed, with gulls screeching, wheeling around, and gliding on the wind.
- Any of various pierid butterflies of the genus Cepora.
Synonyms
Derived terms
- as the gull flies
- Audouin's gull (Ichthyaetus ichthyaetus)
- black-headed gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus)
- Bonaparte's gull (Chroicocephalus philadelphia)
- Caspian gull (Larus cachinnans)
- common gull (Larus canus)
- Dominican gull (Larus dominicanus)
- European herring gull
- flood gull (Rynchops nigra)
- Franklin's gull (Leucophaeus pipixcan)
- glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus)
- great black-backed gull (Larus marinus)
- greater black-backed gull
- gull-billed tern (Gelochelidon nilotica)
- gull chaser (Stercorarius pomarius)
- gullfeed (Scaevola plumieri)
- gull-wing
- Heermann's gull
- herring gull (Larus spp.)
- Iceland gull (Larus glaucoides)
- ivory gull (Pagophila eburnea)
- kelp gull (Larus dominicanus)
- land gull (Larus marinus)
- laughing gull (Xema ridibundus, Leucophaeus atricilla)
- lesser black-backed gull (Larus fuscus)
- little gull (Larus minutus)
- Mediterranean gull (Ichthyaetus melanocephalus)
- mew gull (Larus canus)
- Pacific gull (Larus pacificus)
- Pallas's gull (Ichthyaetus ichthyaetus)
- red-billed gull (Chroicocephalus scopulinus)
- ring-billed gull (Larus delawarensis)
- robber gull (skua)
- Ross's gull (Rhodostethia rosea)
- Sabine's gull (Xema sabini)
- sea-gull
- seagull (Laridae spp.)
- shark-gull
- silver gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae)
- slaty-backed gull (Larus schistisagus)
- slender-billed gull (Chroicocephalus genei)
- white-eyed gull (Ichthyaetus leucophthalmus)
- yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis)
Translations
seabird
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Etymology 2
Perhaps from an obsolete term gull (“to swallow, guzzle”), from Middle English golen (“to make swallowing motions, gape”).[1]
Noun
gull (plural gulls)
- (slang) A cheating trick; a fraud.
- 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:
- BENEDICK. [Aside] I should think this a gull, but that the white-bearded fellow speaks it: knavery cannot, sure, hide itself in such reverence.
- A stupid animal.
- One easily cheated; a dupe.
- (obsolete, Oxford University slang) A swindler or trickster.
- 1825, Bernard Blackmantle, The English Spy:
- You'll excuse me, sir, but as you are fresh, take care to avoid the gulls; they fly about here in large flocks, I assure you, and do no little mischief at times." "I never understood that gulls were birds of prey," said I.—"Only in Oxford, sir; and here, I assure you, they bite like hawks, and pick many a poor young gentleman as bare before his three years are expired, as the crows would a dead sheep upon a common. […] "
Synonyms
- (dupe): See also Thesaurus:dupe
- (swindler): See also Thesaurus:fraudster
Verb
gull (third-person singular simple present gulls, present participle gulling, simple past and past participle gulled)
- To deceive or cheat.
- 1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, →OCLC; reprinted Menston, Yorkshire: The Scolar Press, 1970, →OCLC, (please specify the GB page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
- O, but to ha' gulled him / Had been a mastery.
- 1660, [John] Dryden, Astraea Redux:
- The vulgar, gulled into rebellion, armed.
- 1697 May 5 (date written; Gregorian calendar), E. W. [i.e., Edward Stillingfleet], “Postscript”, in The Bishop of Worcester’s Answer to Mr. [John] Locke’s Letter, Concerning Some Passages Relating to His Essay of Humane Understanding, […], London: […] J. H. for Henry Mortlock […], published 1697, →OCLC, page 143:
- And is all this Cabala too, and only to be uſed vvhen People are to be gulled vvith noiſy Nothings? i.e. vvith empty Pleroma's, and ſilent Thunderclaps.
- c. 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Wallenstein:
- I'm not gulling him for the emperor's service.
- a. 1822 (date written), John Keats, “Otho the Great: A Tragedy in Five Acts.”, in [Horace Elisha Scudder], editor, The Complete Poetical Works and Letters of John Keats, Cambridge edition, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], published 1899, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i:
- [S]peak your curses out / Against me, who would sooner crush and grind / A brace of toads, than league with them to oppress / An innocent lady, gull an Emperor […]
- 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:
- She has done these things before and remembers now that she is good at them, often steadier than the men. In Berlin when Jack needed a spare girl Mary had kept watch, gulled room keys out of concierges, replaced stolen documents in dangerous desks, driven scared Joes to safe flats.
- (US, slang) To mislead.
- (US, slang) To trick and defraud.
- (dialectal) To flatter, wheedle.
Synonyms
- (to deceive): See also Thesaurus:deceive
Derived terms
- gullcatcher
- gullible → gullibility, gullibly
Translations
Etymology 3
From Middle English gole (“a whirlpool, narrow inlet of the sea, ditch or stream”), from Middle Low German goel, gȫl, gȫle (“swamp, marshy lowland”), related to Old Dutch gulla (“pool, puddle”), Old French goille (“pool, puddle, pond”), all ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *goli, *golljā (“puddle”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *guljaz, *guljǭ.
Alternative forms
- gool (dialectal)
Noun
gull (plural gulls)
- (dialectal) A breach or hole made by the force of a torrent; fissure, chasm.
- (dialectal) A channel made by a stream; a natural watercourse; running water.
Derived terms
Verb
gull (third-person singular simple present gulls, present participle gulling, simple past and past participle gulled)
- (dialectal) To sweep away by the force of running water; to carve or wear into a gully.
References
- “gull”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
Further reading
gull on Wikipedia.Wikipedia 
Larus on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
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