bullroarer
bullroarer noun: a ritual musical instrument and means of communicating over extended distances, consisting of a slat of wood tied to the end of a thong or string, with which the slat is whirled so as to cause an intermittent roaring noise.
Noun
bullroarer (plural bullroarers)
- A ritual musical instrument and means of communicating over extended distances, consisting of a slat of wood tied to the end of a thong or string, with which the slat is whirled so as to cause an intermittent roaring noise.
- So far he was on the track of elementary Science. And so he made "bull-roarers" to imitate the sound of wind and the blessed rain-bringing thunder, or clashed great bronze cymbals together with the same object.1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., published 1921, page 72
- The men and boys practiced not only the technique of twirling the bullroarer, but also the mock attack staged upon the person twirling it.1980, Donald F. Tuzin, The Voice of the Tambaran: Truth and Illusion in Ilahita Arapesh Religion, page 61
- Synonyms:
- rhombus, thunder stick, turndun, whizzing stick
bullroarer meaning in Tamil and Malay
bullroarer in Tamil
- விளையாட்டுக் கை இராட்டை, காளை விரட்டி, காளை காச்சிப்புக் கருவி
bullroarer in Malay
- musical instrument
- baling-baling
Examples of bullroarer in a sentence
- Frazer's ingenious theorizing is plausible as far as it goes, but it does not really explain why the bullroarer must be kept from women, the feature of the bullroarer complex that most troubled Lowie.1980, Alan Dundes, Interpreting Folklore, page 181:
- Intrinsic to the propulsion of the bullroarer is the string and the hole the string is attached to.1999, Tom Hackett, “Bullroarers”, in David Wescott, editor, Primitive Technology: A Book of Earth Skills, page 133:
Synonyms of bullroarer
Forms of bullroarer
| plural | bullroarers |
|---|---|
| alternative form | bull roarer |
| alternative form | bull-roarer |
Origin of bullroarer
From bull + roarer.
Questions about bullroarer
- What does bullroarer mean?
- Bullroarer means a ritual musical instrument and means of communicating over extended distances, consisting of a slat of wood tied to the end of a thong or string, with which the slat is whirled so as to cause an intermittent roaring noise.
- What is bullroarer in Tamil?
- Bullroarer in Tamil is விளையாட்டுக் கை இராட்டை, காளை விரட்டி, காளை காச்சிப்புக் கருவி. See Bullroarer meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use bullroarer in a sentence?
- Frazer's ingenious theorizing is plausible as far as it goes, but it does not really explain why the bullroarer must be kept from women, the feature of the bullroarer complex that most troubled Lowie.
- What part of speech is bullroarer?
- Bullroarer is a noun.
- What is the plural of bullroarer?
- The plural of bullroarer is bullroarers.
Words near bullroarer in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bullroarer (page history and authors); bullroarer (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bullroarer.wav.
Cite this entry: “bullroarer.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bullroarer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.