Bull

The male of any species of cattle (Bovidæ); hence, the male of any large quadruped, as the elephant; also, the male of the whale. (Zool.)
One who, or that which, resembles a bull in character or action.
Taurus, the second of the twelve signs of the zodiac. (Astron.)
At last from Aries rolls the bounteous sun, And the bright Bull receives him.
— Thomson.
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. (Stock Exchange)
a ludicrously false statement; nonsense. Also used as an expletive. [vulgar]

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.
To take the bull by the horns: to grapple with a difficulty instead of avoiding it.

Bull bat: the night hawk; -- so called from the loud noise it makes while feeding on the wing, in the evening.
Bull calf: A stupid fellow.
Bull mackerel: the chub mackerel.
Bull pump: a direct single-acting pumping engine, in which the steam cylinder is placed above the pump.
Bull snake: 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.

v. i.

v. t.

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. (Stock Exchange)

A seal. See Bulla.
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.
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.