bullshit

Noun

bullshit (uncountable)

1. (literally, vulgar) Feces produced by a bull.
   • Near-synonyms: cowshit, cowpie
   • Oh, I get it! So it's not a pyramid, it's just pyramid-shaped. You know, like a Dorito, or an Angry Bird, or just a pile of bullshit.2016 November 6, “Multilevel Marketing”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 29, John Oliver (actor), via HBO

   Synonyms:

   cowshit, cowpie

2. (slang, vulgar, usual sense) Statements that are false or exaggerated to impress or cheat the listener.
   • Don't pay any attention to him. He talks a lot of bullshit.
   • He wrote loads of bullshit in the science exam.

   Synonyms:

   BS, horseshit, absurdity, all my eye, all my eye and Betty Martin, apple grease, applesauce, bafflegab, balderdash, balls

3. (slang, vulgar) Statements that are transparently or offensively false.
   • That's total bullshit! I called your office and they said that you didn't come in!
   • Fucking load of bullshit! You smashed his skull and dropped the F-bomb at him, and now you're claiming that he assaulted you?!

   Synonyms:

   BS, horseshit, falsedom, falsehood, falsity, falseness, terminological inexactitude, untruth, disinformation, fabrication

4. (rhetoric) Statements that are intentionally misleading, whether true or not.

   Synonyms:

   BS, horseshit

5. Statements made without regard for their truth value.
   • I focus on unclarifiable unclarity in particular in preparation for a further inquiry into bullshit that addresses the question why so much of that particular kind of bullshit is produced in France. This kind of academic bullshit […] comes close to being celebrated for its very unclarity by some of...2002, G.A. Cohen, “Deeper into bullshit”, in Sarah Buss, Lee Overton, editors, Contours of Agency: Essays on Themes from Harry Frankfurt, page 333
   • Respect for the truth and a concern for the truth are among the foundations for civilization. I was for a long time disturbed by the lack of respect for the truth that I observed... bullshit is one of the deformities of these values.2005, Harry Frankfurt, On Bullshit

   Synonyms:

   BS, horseshit, nonsense, absurdity, all my eye, all my eye and Betty Martin, apple grease, applesauce, bafflegab, balderdash

6. (slang, vulgar) Synonym of shit (any stuff, especially when viewed negatively or with collegial vulgarity).
   • These rules cover how to do your laundry, how to fold your shirts, how to shine your shoes... You know, all that bullshit.
   • And when I rolled with the punches I got knocked on the ground
     By all this bullshit going down1975, “Fight the Power (Part 1 & 2)”, in The Heat Is On, performed by The Isley Brothers

   Synonyms:

   shit

7. (possibly, vulgar) A card game in which players try to discard their hands first, following rules that encourage bluffing, calling others' bluffs, and penalizing others by tricking them into inaccurate accusations.
   • Anyone want to play a few hands of bullshit?
   • In PM parlance, what I did in this story was call bullshit. This is in reference to the card game Bullshit, where you win if you get rid of all the cards in your hand. […] So, if at any time a another player thinks the first player is lying, she can “call bullshit”2005, Scott Berkun, The Art of Project Management, page 260

   Synonyms:

   cheat, I doubt it, banana split

Adjective

bullshit (comparative more bullshit, superlative most bullshit)

1. (slang, vulgar) Absurd, irrational, or nonsensical (most often said of speech, information, or content).
   • a bullshit job
   • That’s the most bullshit excuse I’ve ever heard.

Verb

bullshit (third-person singular simple present bullshits, present participle bullshitting, simple past and past participle bullshitted or bullshit or (rare) bullshat)

1. (ambitransitive, slang, vulgar) To tell lies, exaggerate; to mislead; to deceive.
   • I think you’re bullshitting. Let’s just call your office and see if you even came in.
   • You’re bullshitting me. I called your office and you never even came in.
2. (intransitive, slang, vulgar) To have casual conversation with no real point; to shoot the breeze.
   • I will probably just go and bullshit with Joe for a while.
   • His eyelids flickered. “No. No one special here, just Octavia, Rosemary, Mark, Andy and Jim. Spent most of the time bullshitting with Jim.”1968, Gavin Lambert, A Case for the Angels, page 70
3. (intransitive, slang, vulgar) To come up with on the spot; to improvise.
   • We just went on stage and bullshitted the whole concert because we didn’t know any songs.

   Synonyms:

   crap

4. (intransitive, slang, vulgar) To act in a way considered bullshit.

Interjection

1. (slang, vulgar) An expression of disbelief at what one has just heard.

   Synonyms:

   applesauce, bender, bollocks, bosh, bugger off, bullcrap, bullcrud, bullfuck, chinny reckon, codswallop