Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

bulldoze

[boo l-dohz]
See more synonyms for bulldoze on Thesaurus.com
verb (used with object), bull·dozed, bull·doz·ing.
  1. to clear, level, or reshape the contours of (land) by or as if by using a bulldozer: to bulldoze a building site.
  2. to clear away by or as if by using a bulldozer: to bulldoze trees from a site.
  3. to coerce or intimidate, as with threats.
Show More
verb (used without object), bull·dozed, bull·doz·ing.
  1. to use a bulldozer:to clear this rubble away we may have to bulldoze.
  2. to advance or force one's way in the manner of a bulldozer.
Show More

Origin of bulldoze

1875–80, Americanism; origin uncertain; the notion that it represents a verb use of bull dose, i.e., a dose fit for a bull, is probably without merit; defs 1, 2, 4, 5 are back formations from bulldozer in the sense “tractor”

Synonyms

See more synonyms for bulldoze on Thesaurus.com
3. browbeat, cow, bully, hector; tyrannize.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for bulldoze

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • I have to browbeat, bribe, blackmail and bulldoze you thugs into doing a simple job.

    The Repairman

    Harry Harrison

  • That young assayer Russell started to bulldoze when Sandy took a hand.

    Rimrock Trail

    J. Allan Dunn

  • No call to bulldoze a fellow just because you happened to be first on the spot!

    Dorothy's Travels

    Evelyn Raymond

  • But you can see that we can't allow these men to bulldoze us.

    Desert Conquest

    A. M. Chisholm

  • Perhaps that crowd is coming over again to bulldoze us, he suggested.

British Dictionary definitions for bulldoze

bulldoze

verb (tr)
  1. to move, demolish, flatten, etc, with a bulldozer
  2. informal to force; pushhe bulldozed his way through the crowd
  3. informal to intimidate or coerce
Show More

Word Origin

C19: probably from bull 1 + dose
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for bulldoze

v.

by 1880, from an earlier noun, bulldose "a severe beating or lashing" (1876), literally "a dose fit for a bull," a slang word referring to the intimidation beating of black voters (by either blacks or whites) in the chaotic 1876 U.S. presidential election. See bull (n.1) + dose (n.). Related: Bulldozed; bulldozing.

Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper