Word.ws English Dictionary

bullpup

/ˈbʊlpʌp/

bullpup noun: a bullpuppy, a bulldog puppy (of either sex).

Noun

bullpup (plural bullpups)

  1. (dated) A bullpuppy, a bulldog puppy (of either sex).
    • He sees thou art the best man for the swamp; that thy scent is keen with the bloodhound, thine eye like the hawk's, and thou art quick for fight as the colonel's bullpup.1835, William Gilmore Simms, The Partisan: A Tale of the Revolution
  2. (US, obsolete) A handgun smaller than a bulldog.
    • He brought with him the holsters of his young master, wrapped up in the fragment of a blanket. “I tink, Mass Willie,” said he, “dat you better hab dese little bullpups yer, onder you own han'. Dere's no telling how soon you may want 'em. De swode is good 'nough, when you hab dem tory in chopping...1855, William Gilmore Simms, The Forayers
    • "Gone for his two little bull-pups," said Stubbs. That was what the Parson called his silver-mounted derringers.1875, Joaquin Miller, First Fam’lies in the Sierras
  3. A firearm configuration in which the trigger is located forward of the magazine and breech, as opposed to a conventional configuration in which the trigger is located rear of the magazine and breech.

Forms of bullpup

pluralbullpups
alternative formbull pup
alternative formbull-pup

Origin of bullpup

From bull + pup. The firearms sense originated from firearm designers in the United States during the 1930s. The unconventional configuration of bullpup rifles was compared by analogy to bulldog puppies, which were considered "squat, ugly, but still aggressive and powerful".

Questions about bullpup

What does bullpup mean?
Bullpup means a bullpuppy, a bulldog puppy (of either sex).
What part of speech is bullpup?
Bullpup is a noun.
How do you pronounce bullpup?
Bullpup is pronounced /ˈbʊlpʌp/.
What is the plural of bullpup?
The plural of bullpup is bullpups.

Words near bullpup in the dictionary

  1. bullpoo
  2. bullpoop
  3. bullpout
  4. bullpouts
  5. bullpucky
  6. bullpup
  7. bullpups
  8. bullrail
  9. bullrails
  10. bullring
  11. bullrings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bullpup (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “bullpup.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bullpup. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.