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gull

Pronunciation: /ˈɡʌl/

The English word “gull” has 13 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A seabird of the genus Larus or of the subfamily Larinae.
  2. Any of various pierid butterflies of the genus Cepora.
  3. A cheating trick; a fraud.
  4. A stupid animal.
  5. One easily cheated; a dupe.
  6. A swindler or trickster.
  7. A breach or hole made by the force of a torrent; fissure, chasm.
  8. A channel made by a stream; a natural watercourse; running water.

verb

  1. To deceive or cheat.
  2. To mislead.
  3. To trick and defraud.
  4. To flatter, wheedle.
  5. To sweep away by the force of running water; to carve or wear into a gully.

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English gulle, from a Brythonic language (compare Breton gouelan, Welsh gwylan, and Cornish golan), from Proto-Brythonic *gwuɨlann, from Proto-Celtic *weilannā (“seagull”). Cognate with Old Irish foílenn, Scottish Gaelic faoileag. Compare French goéland, a borrowing from Breton. Eclipsed Middle English lare (borrowed from Latin larus) and Middle English mewe (from Old…

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