gull

plural gulls

1. A seabird of the genus Larus or of the subfamily Larinae.

   The tide was out, and we drew up amid the strong bracing smell of seaweed, with gulls screeching, wheeling around, and gliding on the wind.

   1947 January–February, O. S. Nock, “‘The Aberdonian’ in Wartime”, in The Railway Magazine, volume 93, number 567, page 8

   1 more example

   Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight—how to get from shore to food and back again.[…]For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight.

   1970, Richard Bach, “Part One”, in Jonathan Livingston Seagull: A Story, Macmillan; republished as complete edition, Scribner, 21 October 2014, →ISBN, page 4

   Synonyms: mew, seabird, seagull, seamew

2. Any of various pierid butterflies of the genus Cepora.

plural gulls

1. slangA cheating trick; a fraud.

   BENEDICK. [Aside] I should think this a gull, but that the white-bearded fellow speaks it: knavery cannot, sure, hide itself in such reverence.

   1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]

2. A stupid animal.
3. One easily cheated; a dupe.
4. obsoleteOxford University slangA swindler or trickster.

   1 more example

   You'll excuse me, sir, but as you are fresh, take care to avoid the gulls; they fly about here in large flocks, I assure you, and do no little mischief at times." "I never understood that gulls were birds of prey," said I.—"Only in Oxford, sir; and here, I assure you, they bite like hawks, and pick many a poor young gentleman as bare before his three years are expired, as the crows would a dead sheep upon a common. […]"

   1825, Bernard Blackmantle, The English Spy

present singular third person gulls · participle present gulling · participle past gulled · past gulled

1. To deceive or cheat.

   The vulgar, gulled into rebellion, armed.

   1660, [John] Dryden, Astraea Redux

   5 more examples

   O, but to ha' gulled him / Had been a mastery.

   1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, →OCLC, (please specify the Internet Archive page), (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

   And is all this Cabala too, and only to be uſed vvhen People are to be gulled vvith noiſy Nothings? i.e. vvith empty Pleroma's, and ſilent Thunderclaps.

   1697 May 5 (date written; Gregorian calendar), E. W. [i.e., Edward Stillingfleet], “Postscript”, in The Bishop of Worcester’s Answer to Mr. [John] Locke’s Letter, Concerning Some Passages Relating to His Essay of Humane Understanding, […], London: […] J. H. for Henry Mortlock […], published 1697, →OCLC, page 143

   I'm not gulling him for the emperor's service.

   c. 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Wallenstein

   [S]peak your curses out / Against me, who would sooner crush and grind / A brace of toads, than league with them to oppress / An innocent lady, gull an Emperor […]

   a. 1822 (date written), John Keats, “Otho the Great: A Tragedy in Five Acts.”, in [Horace Elisha Scudder], editor, The Complete Poetical Works and Letters of John Keats, Cambridge edition, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], published 1899, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i

   She has done these things before and remembers now that she is good at them, often steadier than the men. In Berlin when Jack needed a spare girl Mary had kept watch, gulled room keys out of concierges, replaced stolen documents in dangerous desks, driven scared Joes to safe flats.

   1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy

2. USslangTo mislead.
3. USslangTo trick and defraud.
4. dialectalTo flatter, wheedle.

plural gulls · alternative gool

1. dialectalA breach or hole made by the force of a torrent; fissure, chasm.
2. dialectalA channel made by a stream; a natural watercourse; running water.

present singular third person gulls · participle present gulling · participle past gulled · past gulled · alternative gool

1. dialectalTo sweep away by the force of running water; to carve or wear into a gully.

plural Gulls

1. A surname.

plural Gulls

1. ball gamesA player, supporter or other person connected with Torquay United Football Club.