gull
1 Americannoun
verb (used with object)
-
gulls,
present (3rd person singular)
-
gulled,
past participle, past
-
gulling
present participle
noun
noun
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
gullsimple
-
gullssimple
-
have gulledperfect
-
has gulledperfect
-
am gullingprogressive
-
are gullingprogressive
-
is gullingprogressive
-
have been gullingperfect progressive
-
has been gullingperfect progressive
Past
-
gulledsimple
-
had gulledperfect
-
was gullingprogressive
-
were gullingprogressive
-
had been gullingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gull1
1400–50; late Middle English gulle, perhaps < Welsh gŵylan, Cornish guilan (compare French goéland < Breton gwelan )
Origin of gull2
First recorded in 1540–50; perhaps akin to obsolete gull to swallow, guzzle
Explanation
You know those birds that hang out by the ocean, and grab your sandwich if you aren't paying attention? Those are gulls, also known as sea gulls. Gulls are found in every continent, including Antarctica. The noun gull has two very distinct definitions. Gulls are shore birds, of course, but lesser-used meaning of the word is "a person who is easy to fool." Your little brother might be a gull if you can trick him into doing your chores along with his own. You may know the related word gullible, which describes a willingness to believe anything, without questioning whether it is true.
Vocabulary lists containing gull
A Vocabulary Bestiary: Animals That Behave as Verbs
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Much Ado About Nothing
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Twelfth Night
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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:
The lab report concluded that flying debris from the tail section mangled a great black-backed gull whose wing was found on a rooftop with other debris.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026
Birds including the curlew, nightjar, dipper, lesser black-backed gull and red grouse are also named.
From BBC ● Apr. 27, 2026
The incident unfolded when the low-flying gull got caught in the path of a clearance kick by Istanbul Yurdum Spor's goalkeeper during an amateur playoff match against Mevlanakapi Guzelhisar, a club official told AFP Tuesday.
From Barron's ● Feb. 24, 2026
Earlier in 2024, scientists detected H5N1 in a kelp gull and two skuas that were found dead in January and February.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 12, 2026
I turned away and found a perch on a pylon where a herring gull had been keeping watch but was now down among the baitfish, guzzling its lunch.
From "Beyond the Bright Sea" by Lauren Wolk
The debate about city gulls was not the only conversation sparked by the installation.
From BBC ● Feb. 17, 2026
In a recent expedition to Antarctica, new cases were discovered in Antarctic cormorants, kelp gulls, Adelie and gentoo penguins, and Antarctic fur seals, Neira told AFP.
From Barron's ● Feb. 17, 2026
Skuas are large brown seabirds related to gulls that live mainly in polar and subpolar regions.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 12, 2026
The lead sentence in the Los Angeles Times story was, “Playing in conditions more suitable for sea gulls and ducks.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2025
I walked by the side of the Mill Pond, which smelled of rotting weeds and fish, gulls clustering above it, screeching at the sea-winds, their cries punctuated by the detonation of artillery.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
And they are easily gulled by simple tricks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
The issue is not so much what AI can do, but how users can be gulled into thinking what it can do.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 1, 2024
It is inconceivable that none of them would have had contact with friends and relatives in the Philippines who might have been gulled by the American disinformation.
From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2024
An assassin prevented Americans from proving, by spurning Long’s presidential pretenses, that they were less easily gulled than Long assumed.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 15, 2022
And she let herself be gulled with this story about Marcel's nervous condition?
From Bijou by Gyp
The city alleged that Siemens had pulled a bait-and-switch, gulling the city into signing a contract lacking that hard-and-fast guarantee.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2022
Documenting a lifetime spent gulling audiences and pursuing con men, the directors Justin Weinstein and Tyler Measom have produced a jaunty, jovial portrait with a surprising sting in its tail.
From New York Times ● Mar. 5, 2015
It also has the potential to massively chill free speech by gulling ISPs and websites into either pulling down totally legal material when faced with any sort of complaint, but also proactively policing free expression.
From Time ● Sep. 4, 2014
The diction was very poor, the gulling scenes rather disappointing for exactly the reasons Michael Billington outlines, and the whole thing could do with some serious cutting.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 3, 2012
A public instructor jumped up in the person of Mr. Flummery Flam, the least insinuating and the least plausible personage that ever performed the easy task of gulling a nation.
From The Voyage of Captain Popanilla by Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield
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.
