gully

¹

[ guhl-ee ]

noun

, plural gul·lies.

1. a small valley or ravine originally worn away by running water and serving as a drainageway after prolonged heavy rains.

   Synonyms: watercourse, defile, gorge, gulch

2. a ditch or gutter.
3. Cricket.
   1. the position of a fielder between point and slips.
   2. the fielder occupying this position.

verb (used with object)

, gul·lied, gul·ly·ing.

1. to make gullies in.
2. to form (channels) by the action of water.

adjective

1. Slang. of or relating to the environment, culture, or life experience in poor urban neighborhoods; vulgar, raw, or authentic; ghetto: Keepin’ it gully, for real!

   Does your mama know what you’re up to on these gully street corners all night?

   Keepin’ it gully, for real!

gully

²

or gul·ley

[ guhl-ee, gool-ee ]

noun

, Scot. and North England.

, plural gul·lies.

1. a knife, especially a large kitchen or butcher knife.

gully

¹

/ ˈɡʌlɪ /

noun

1. a channel or small valley, esp one cut by heavy rainwater
2. a small bush-clad valley
3. a deep, wide fissure between two buttresses in a mountain face, sometimes containing a stream or scree
4. cricket
   1. a fielding position between the slips and point
   2. a fielder in this position
5. either of the two channels at the side of a tenpin bowling lane

verb

1. tr to make (channels) in (the ground, sand, etc)

gully

²

/ ˈɡʌlɪ /

noun

1. a large knife, such as a butcher's knife

gully

/ gŭl′ē /

1. A narrow, steep-sided channel formed in loose earth by running water. A gully is usually dry except after periods of heavy rainfall or after the melting of snow or ice.

Word History and Origins

Origin of gully¹

First recorded in 1530–40; apparently a variant of gullet, with -y replacing French -et

Origin of gully²

First recorded in 1575–85; origin uncertain

Word History and Origins

Origin of gully¹

C16: from French goulet neck of a bottle; see gullet

Origin of gully²

C16: of obscure origin

Example Sentences

The trail started with a series of switchbacks before it dove directly down the loose, boulder-ridden gully toward the canyon floor.

From Outside Online

This is especially noticeable—and vital—when you’re moving from a sunny face to a shady gully at 25 miles per hour.

From Outside Online

At one point in 1971, he spotted a jawbone jutting out from the side of the gully.

From Science News For Students

The snails turned up in small patches of unburned habitat, sometimes at the bottom of gullies or in deep leaf litter around the bases of large trees.

From Science News

One by one we left camp, figuring we’d be able to keep tabs on each other pretty easily in the wide-open gully.

From Outside Online

In 2000, Cogswell helped found The Gully, an online lesbian magazine, which closed six years later.

From The Daily Beast

Gully Wells shares recollections of growing up with her mother, stepfather, and their famous inner circle.

From The Daily Beast

Judge then of my surprise when I rode up out of the water-washed gully and found them nowhere in sight.

From Project Gutenberg

It was perched high above the sidewalk, for the street but a few years since was a gully, and the grading had deepened it.

From Project Gutenberg

Thousands of Turks in a bunch, so the boys say, swarmed out of their trenches and the Gully Ravine.

From Project Gutenberg

One of the horses was hobbled, and they were all eating hungrily the grass that grew along the gully's sides.

From Project Gutenberg

A few pines were sprinkled about the slopes of the gully, and one or two of them which had fallen lay athwart the creek.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• chasm
• crevasse
• culvert
• trench