bullies

Noun

bully (countable and uncountable, plural bullies)

1. 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.
2. A noisy, blustering, tyrannical person, more insolent than courageous; one who is threatening and quarrelsome.
   • Besides, bullies seldom execute the threats they deal in; and men of trick and cunning are not always men of desperate resolves.1840 September 22, Lord Palmerston, The Life of Henry John Temple, Viscount of Palmerston, 3rd edition, volume 2, published 1871, page 327
3. A hired thug.
   • 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...1849, John McLean, Notes of a Twenty-Five Years' Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory, pages 42–3

   Synonyms:

   henchman, thug

4. A sex worker's minder.
   • 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 […].2009, Dan Cruikshank, Secret History of Georgian London, Random House, page 473

   Synonyms:

   pimp, abbot, bludger, cock-bawd, dalaal, fishmonger, flashman, fleshmonger, hoon, hustler

5. (uncountable) Bully beef.
6. (obsolete) A brisk, dashing fellow.
   • What sayest thou, Bully Bottom?c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First...

See all 18 meanings of bully