bulldog
Americannoun
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bulldogs
plural
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one of an English breed of medium-sized, short-haired, muscular dogs with prominent, undershot jaws, usually having a white and tan or brindled coat, raised originally for bullbaiting.
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Informal. a stubbornly persistent person.
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a short-barreled revolver of large caliber.
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Metallurgy. slag from a puddling furnace.
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an assistant to the proctor at Oxford and Cambridge universities.
adjective
verb (used with object)
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to attack in the manner of a bulldog.
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Western U.S. to throw (a calf, steer, etc.) to the ground by seizing the horns and twisting the head.
noun
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a sturdy thickset breed of dog with an undershot jaw, short nose, broad head, and a muscular body
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(at Oxford University) an official who accompanies the proctors on ceremonial occasions
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commerce a fixed-interest bond issued in Britain by a foreign borrower
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of bulldog
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But most of these intellectual flights are cleverly couched in the jowly mundanities of bulldog existence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
Known for his folksy charm, Justice now appears at Senate committee meetings with his English bulldog Babydog, who has become a fixture on Capitol Hill and had her “testimony” entered into the Congressional Record.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton races for the first time since the death of his bulldog Roscoe last weekend.
From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2025
“God, it’s been so much fun,” she says as her French bulldog, Banksy, yips at her feet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2025
And while presidents came and went, this bureaucrat, now thick around the waist and with jowls like a bulldog, remained.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
“Due to the unique anatomy of their airways, bulldogs can experience more respiratory distress in their golden years and may also have a harder time regulating their temperature as a result,” Greenstein says.
From MarketWatch ● May 19, 2026
As I said, bulldogs have a unique physique that can age them more quickly.
From MarketWatch ● May 19, 2026
Other popular members of this snub-nosed club include English bulldogs, Boston terriers, pugs and Brussels griffons.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025
“We’re going to be like bulldogs on this,” Carstens said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2024
On the other hand, they were not just different populations of the same species, like bulldogs and spaniels.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
Hughes's bulldogged determination could make things interesting at the end.
From Time Magazine Archive
Rozier is a brute with guile, whose balance is such that he seems to be bulldogged off the field more often than he is tumbled off his feet.
From Time Magazine Archive
The Federal Board took its cues from the State but the final decision on the status of any lot of oil actually rested on a bulldogged, stone-steady gentleman named Captain E. N. Stanley.
From Time Magazine Archive
Next day one was still at large in the countryside; the other was bulldogged after he darted into a ball game, tossed two would-be captors, and tried to gore an automobile.
From Time Magazine Archive
While he groused about so preposterous an idea, the kid laid down the mat he never used, bulldogged him down to it, pulled off his shoes and draped a blanket over him.
From "Maniac Magee" by Jerry Spinelli
In Fort Worth, celebrations included the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo, named for the Black cowboy who is credited with introducing bulldogging, or steer wrestling.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 19, 2022
Fort Collins, for instance, was supposed to have goat roping, steer bulldogging competitions, a shooting exhibition from the U.S.
From Slate ● Jul. 4, 2021
William “Bill” Pickett was a famous rodeo star credited with founding the sport bulldogging, also known as steer wrestling.
From Fox News ● Jul. 3, 2020
“Some guys just have a knack of bulldogging their way through an inning, you know?”
From New York Times ● Oct. 12, 2014
Mr. Huxley stopped in a few times while they were there, to take breaks from his bulldogging and to get more direction and advice from Charles.
From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
