bull session

American  

noun

Informal.

1. an informal, spontaneous discussion.

---

bull session British  

noun

1. informal an informal discussion, often among men

---

bull session Idioms  

1. An informal discussion, as in College students love late-night bull sessions about anything and everything, from professors to poetry to politics. This expression originally referred to an exchange of opinions and anecdotes, including stories of sexual prowess, by men, and then came to be used more broadly. [Slang; c. 1915]

---

Etymology

Origin of bull session

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

Bush, described it as “more like an Oval Office bull session than a world leader calling a new world leader in a troubled region. It’s illuminating because it probably suggests how Trump talks to everybody.”

From Washington Post • Sep. 25, 2019

We gathered at the Peace Corps nurses' quarters after dinner, talking well into the evening and sharing our successes and obstacles and brainstorming, much like a college bull session.

From US News • Sep. 29, 2016

It is one of several biting lines about the gap between officialdom and those mired in ground truth, this one delivered in a military bull session just before the attack.

From New York Times • Oct. 14, 2015

In one installment of West’s recent online tour documentary, he brings together London electronic whiz James Blake and New Orleans bounce god Mannie Fresh for a late-night bull session.

From Slate • Jun. 20, 2012

“From what Al told me, you all had quite a little lethal bull session late one night—the same night you made that tape, I believe.”

From "Nine Stories" by J. D. Salinger