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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

gully.

A trench, ravine or narrow channel which was worn by water flow, especially on a hillside.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɡʌli/

  1. A trench, ravine or narrow channel which was worn by water flow, especially on a hillside.

  2. A small valley.

  3. A drop kerb.

    UK

  4. A road drain.

  5. A fielding position on the off side about 30 degrees behind square, between the slips and point; a fielder in such a position

  6. A grooved iron rail or tram plate.

    UK
Where this word comes from

Origin uncertain. Possibly from a variant of Middle English golet (“esophagus, gullet”), from Old French goulet, from Latin gula (“throat”). Shift in meaning in Middle English to "water channel, ravine" may have been influenced by Middle English gylle, gille, galle (“deep narrow valley, ravine”); see gill. Compare Dutch geul. Alternatively, from a diminutive of dialectal gull (“fissue, chasm”) + -y (diminutive suffix). See gull, gullick.

verb/ˈɡʌli/

  1. To flow noisily.

    obsolete

  2. To wear away into a gully or gullies.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Origin uncertain. Possibly from a variant of Middle English golet (“esophagus, gullet”), from Old French goulet, from Latin gula (“throat”). Shift in meaning in Middle English to "water channel, ravine" may have been influenced by Middle English gylle, gille, galle (“deep narrow valley, ravine”); see gill. Compare Dutch geul. Alternatively, from a diminutive of dialectal gull (“fissue, chasm”) + -y (diminutive suffix). See gull, gullick.

noun/ˈɡʌli/

  1. A large knife.

    Northern · Scotland · UK
Where this word comes from

From Scots gully, of unknown origin.

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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.