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Bully vs Billy - What's the difference?

bully | billy |

As a noun bully

is a person who is cruel to others, especially those who are weaker or have less power.

As a verb bully

is to intimidate (someone) as a bully.

As an adjective bully

is (us|slang) very good; excellent.

As an interjection bully

is (often|followed by for) well done!.

As a proper noun billy is

a diminutive of the male given name william.

bully

English

(wikipedia bully)

Noun

  • A person who is cruel to others, especially those who are weaker or have less power.
    • A playground bully pushed a girl off the swing.
    I noticed you being a bully towards people with disabilities.
  • A noisy, blustering fellow, more insolent than courageous; one who is threatening and quarrelsome; an insolent, tyrannical fellow.
  • * Palmerston
    • Bullies seldom execute the threats they deal in.
  • A hired thug.
  • A prostitute’s minder; a pimp.
  • (uncountable) Bully beef.
  • (obsolete) A brisk, dashing fellow.
    • "Bully Bottom" from A Midsummer Night's Dream, III, i, 6.
  • The small scrum in the Eton College field game.
  • A small freshwater fish.

    • Synonyms

    * (hired thug) henchman, thug * (pimp) pimp, ponce

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To intimidate (someone) as a bully.
    • You shouldn't bully people for being gay.
  • To act aggressively towards.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
    • , date=January 15 , author=Sam Sheringham , title=Chelsea 2 -03 Blackburn Rovers , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=The Potters know their strengths and played to them perfectly here, out-muscling Bolton in midfield and bullying the visitors' back-line at every opportunity. }}

    Synonyms

    * (intimidate) browbeat, hector, intimidate, ride roughshod over * (act aggressively toward) push around, ride roughshod over

    Adjective

    (er)
  • (US, slang) Very good; excellent.
    • a bully horse
  • (slang) Jovial and blustering; dashing.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Bless thee, bully doctor.

    Synonyms

    * (excellent) excellent, marvellous/marvelous, splendid, super, superb, top-notch

    Derived terms

    * bully boy * bully pulpit

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • (often, followed by for) Well done!
    • She's finally leaving her abusive husband — bully for her!

    Synonyms

    * bravo, well done, see also .

    billy

    English

    Noun

    (billies)
  • A billy club.
  • A billy goat.
  • * 1970 August, Valerius Geist, Mountain Goat Mysteries'', '' , page 62,
    • Then, during three days, I was amazed to see nannies with kids attack and chase off large billies .
  • * 1992 , Dwight R. Schuh, Mountain Goat (Oreamnos americanus)'', in ''Bowhunter's Encyclopedia , page 276,
    • In fact, distinguishing between billies and nannies isn't necessarily a sure thing.
  • * 2002 , Douglas H. Chadwick, A Beast the Color of Winter: The Mountain Goat Observed , page 159,
    • It isn't just billies that enter the bleak season with rut-depleted fat reserves, but rams, bull elk, buck deer, and others.
  • # A male goat; a ram.
  • (Geordie) A good friend.
  • (Australia, New Zealand) A tin used by bushmen to boil tea, a billypot.
  • * (seeCites)
  • (UK, Australia) A billycan.
    • Let's get the billy and cook some beans.
  • * 1889 , Ernest Giles, Australia Twice Traversed , 2004, page 239,
    • We had been absent from civilisation, so long, that our tin billies', the only boiling utensils we had, got completely worn or burnt out at the bottoms, and as the boilings for glue and oil must still go on, what were we to do with ' billies with no bottoms?
  • * 2011 , Rod Moss, The Hard Light of Day: An Artist's Story of Friendships in Arrernte Country , unnumbered page,
    • Over the fence, in a shallow gully 100 metres away, this guy and his wife were living on the dirt in the open weather with just a blanket, billies , a dog and a transistor radio. They didn't even have water.
  • (slang) A condom (From the E-Rotic song "Willy, Use a Billy...Boy")
  • A slubbing or roving machine.
  • * 1840 , The Citizen , page 347,
    • at the time there existed in Dublin and its immediate neighbourhood, “forty-five manufacturers, having twenty-two billies , giving employment to 2885 work people, on whom depended for support 7386 individuals, manufacturing 29,312 pieces of cloth, of various qualities, valued at £336,380.”
  • * 1967 , Jennifer Tann, Gloucestershire Woollen Mills: Industrial Archaeology , page 126,
    • On the second floor there were 2 billies , 1 carding and 1 scribbling machine.

    Derived terms

    * billycan, billy-can * billy cart * Silly Billy, silly billy

    References

    * * Sceilig: Information Pack for Troops (p. 4) * The Patrol goes to Camp (pp. 9, 11).