Bull– Figures of Speech 11-37

12. bull-hided [said of someone who does not sweat]

13. bull pen  =

(a)  a part of the baseball field where the pitchers warm up during the game

(b)  an area where prisoners are kept temporarily

(c)  a place where a bull (animal) is kept

14. bull-week  [said of the seek before the annual holiday (year-ending holiday) of an employee (a worker) because he or she works very hard like a bull (an animal) to earn holiday money]

15. bull’s liver  =  peaty soil; boggy area  (‘peaty’ = something that looks like peat = the soil formed of dead and decaying (rotting) grasses, plants and branches of trees (vegetation) which is usually wet and smelly; ‘boggy’ = a wet land full of bogs = a wet place most of the year and full of dead and decaying (rotting) vegetation)

16. bull-baiting  =  a noisy fight of several people or groups of people (riot)

17. the bull of woods  =  the head of a gang of woodcutters; a foreman

18.   to bull (verb)  =

(a) to tell a lie

(b) to shine shoes to a very bright shine (in military)

(c) to try to dominate, frighten, control others, usually weak people

19. to play with a bull  =  to take unnecessary risks

20. to shoot the bull  =  to talk without a particular purpose or topic

21. (a)  to get the bull down =  to complete a job or work

(b)  to get the bull by the tail

22. (a)  “Tie that bull outside!”

(b)  “Tie that bull to another ash-can!” [used to say: “Don’t tell me that lie.  I can’t/don’t believe it!”]

23. a bull in a china shop  =  a clumsy or tactless person; a person without skill

24. to take the bull by the horns  =  to try to do something in the wrong way or the wrong order, but not trusting or allowing others experience ones to do it; to deal with a difficulty or challenge boldly and positively, instead avoiding or escaping from it

25. to be like a red rag to a bull  [said of someone or something that causes anger or distaste to somebody else]

(It is believed that red colour things, clothes, flags, etc. make a bull angry, but it is not true because bulls are colour blind)

26. one dog, one bull  =  a fair play; no cheating

27. to bear (someone) a bull’s neck  =  to have a grudge on someone (‘grudge’ = a sort of bad feeling to harm someone because they have done some wrong to you or you are jealous of them; ‘to bear’ = to have)

28. touchy as a scrub bull in a bog [said of someone that they are very irritable; they become annoyed very easily]

29. (a)  as fat as a bull

(b)  as fell as a bull   (‘fell’ = angry, dangerous)

(c)  as strong as a bull

(d)  as sulky as a bull  (‘sulky’ = not being friendly; not talking to anybody)

30. as fit as a Mallee bull  =  (said of some man) strong and very impatient to do something

31. like a bull at an anty-tump  =  in a pointless fight or quarrel (‘anty-tump’ = ant hill)

32. as tight as a bull’s arse in fly-time [said of someone who is very careful with his money; stingy; cheap]

[not to be used in formal situations because ‘arse’ = the back, bottom part of a person is not a decent word to use in formal speech]

33. to leer like an old bull  =  to stare (to look at something steadily) at something

34. to sweat like a bull  =  (said of) an expression, words or style of language used in an exuberant (more than needed) manner

35. like a pimple on a bull’s arse  =

(a)  said of a small hat on a large head

(b) to express strongly that something is very insignificant (not worth or enough) [not to be used in formal situations]

36. It’s not the bull they’re afraid of; it’s the calf [said to mean that people are worried not about the loss of virginity of a woman but the pregnancy]

37. bull baiting  =  a bloody sport in which some dogs are let loose on the bull, the bull must defend itself and the dogs must hurt the bull