bulldoze

English

Etymology

From earlier bulldose (noun, literally “bull-dose, a dose fit for a bull”), equivalent to bull +‎ dose.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʊldoʊz/
• IPA^(key): /ˈbʊldəʊz/

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bull‧doze

Verb

bulldoze (third-person singular simple present bulldozes, present participle bulldozing, simple past and past participle bulldozed)

1. To destroy with a bulldozer.

   He's certainly very chirpy for a man whose house has just been bulldozed down.
2. (UK) To push someone over by heading straight over them. Often used in conjunction with "over".

   He just ran across the field bulldozing everyone over.

3. To push through forcefully.
   • 2012 November 10, Amy Lawrence, “Fulham's Mark Schwarzer saves late penalty in dramatic draw at Arsenal”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     For the second time in a week, Wenger's team gave themselves an encouraging platform. In the 11th minute Theo Walcott drilled in a corner, and Olivier Giroud bulldozed through unopposed to thump the ball goalwards.

4. To push into a heap, as a bulldozer does.
   • 1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift, Avon ed. edition, published 1976, page 469:

     There stood a low yellow compact machine which apparently did the digging and bull-dozed back the earth.

   Again the animal had bulldozed all of its bedding into a heap at one end of its cage.

5. (UK) To shoot down an idea immediately and forcefully.

   That was a good suggestion, but you just bulldozed it.

6. (US, slang, dated) To intimidate; to restrain or coerce by intimidation or violence; used originally of the intimidation of black voters in Louisiana.
   • 1877 January, W.B.Chrisler, Bruce Carr, Sarah E. Turner, editor, The Common School Teacher: Devoted to the Cause of Common Schools, volume 2, page 113:

     The standard of qualifications for teachers has been very greatly advanced, till at the present day not one in ten of the old pedagogues who taught “readin’, ritin’ and ‘rithmetic,” and bulldozed unruly pupils with the birch, the beech or the willow rod, or in their absence the ferrule, would be able to procure a third grade or any grade certificate to be able to teach in the most secluded rural “deestrict” in all of the western states.

   • 1877 February 3, “Varieties”, in Family Herald: A Domestic Magazine of Useful Information and Amusement‎^[2], page 223:

     The practice of whipping and killing negroes in the Southern States was called bull-dozing. The word is a corruption of bull dose, or strong dose - in the sense that a bull fence is a strong fence. “Give him the bull dose” was the direction when a negro had to be severely punished.

Translations

to destroy with a bulldozer

• Arabic: جَرَّفَ (jarrafa)
• Esperanto: buldozi
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Finnish: tuhota puskutraktorilla

to push someone over by heading straight over them

• Finnish: jyrätä (fi) (often with alleen)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

to push through forcefully

• Finnish: puskea läpi
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

to push, as a bulldozer

• Finnish: puskea (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

to shoot down an idea

• Finnish: jyrätä (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

References

Kelly, John. "What in the Word?! The racist roots of 'bulldozer'". Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 21 October 2018.

Further reading

• bulldoze on Wikipedia.Wikipedia