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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

gull.

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

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɡʌl//ɡʊl/Northern-England
  1. A seabird of the genus Larus or of the subfamily Larinae.

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

Where this word comes from

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 English mæw).

noun/ˈɡʌl//ɡʊl/Northern-England
  1. A cheating trick; a fraud.

    slang
  2. A stupid animal.

  3. One easily cheated; a dupe.

  4. A swindler or trickster.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

Perhaps from an obsolete term gull (“to swallow, guzzle”), from Middle English golen (“to make swallowing motions, gape”), from Middle English gole (“throat”).

verb/ˈɡʌl//ɡʊl/Northern-England
  1. To deceive or cheat.

  2. To mislead.

    US · slang
  3. To trick and defraud.

    US · slang
  4. To flatter, wheedle.

    dialectal
Where this word comes from

Perhaps from an obsolete term gull (“to swallow, guzzle”), from Middle English golen (“to make swallowing motions, gape”), from Middle English gole (“throat”).

noun/ˈɡʌl//ɡʊl/Northern-England
  1. A breach or hole made by the force of a torrent; fissure, chasm.

    dialectal
  2. A channel made by a stream; a natural watercourse; running water.

    dialectal
Where this word comes from

From Middle English gole (“a whirlpool, narrow inlet of the sea, ditch or stream”), from Middle Low German goel, gȫl, gȫle (“swamp, marshy lowland”), related to Old Dutch gulla (“pool, puddle”), Old French goille (“pool, puddle, pond”), all ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *goli, *golljā (“puddle”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *guljaz, *guljǭ.

verb/ˈɡʌl//ɡʊl/Northern-England
  1. To sweep away by the force of running water; to carve or wear into a gully.

    dialectal
Where this word comes from

From Middle English gole (“a whirlpool, narrow inlet of the sea, ditch or stream”), from Middle Low German goel, gȫl, gȫle (“swamp, marshy lowland”), related to Old Dutch gulla (“pool, puddle”), Old French goille (“pool, puddle, pond”), all ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *goli, *golljā (“puddle”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *guljaz, *guljǭ.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.