bulk
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: bŭlk
ipa: /bʌlk/
rhymes: -ʌlk
Forms: form: bulks
Etymology: From Middle English bulk, bolke (“a heap, cargo, hold; heap; bulge”), borrowed from Old Norse búlki (“the freight or the cargo of a ship”), from Proto-Germanic *bulkô (“beam, pile, heap”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵ- (“beam, pile, prop”). Compare Icelandic búlkast (“to be bulky”), Swedish dialectal bulk (“a bunch”), Danish bulk (“bump, knob”).
Conflated with Middle English bouk (“belly, trunk”).
Senses: examples: text: The Quantity of Matter is the measure of the same, arising from its density and bulk conjunctly.
ref: 1729, I Newton, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, page 1:
text: “ Didn't Balbus say this morning that, if a body is immersed in liquid, it displaces as much liquid as is equal to its own bulk? ” said Hugh.
ref: 1885, Lewis Carroll, “Knot IX”, in A Tangled Tale, page 58:
text: By this process the body of the oyster acquires such a plumpness and rotundity, and its bulk and weight are so increased, as to materially increase its selling value.
ref: 1887, W. O. Atwater, “The Chemistry of Oyster-Fattening”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume 32, number November, page 77:
text: The cliff-dwellers had chipped and chipped away at this boulder till it rested its tremendous bulk upon a mere pin-point of its surface.
ref: 1912 January, Zane Grey, chapter 8, in Riders of the Purple Sage […], New York, N.Y.; London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, →OCLC:
glosses: Size, specifically, volume.
examples: text: The obese woman couldn't ease her bulk through the narrow passageway.
glosses: Any huge body or structure.
examples: text: In the case of such a contract, there must be an implied condition that the bulk shall correspond with the sample in quality
ref: 1911, Encyclopædia Britannica, volume 24, «Sample», page 119:
text: There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs,[…], and all these articles[…] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: the main bulk of a nut roast is generally some form of carbohydrate, intended to lighten the load.
ref: 2011 December 15, Felicity Cloake, “How to cook the perfect nut roast”, in Guardian:
glosses: The major part of something.
examples: text: The bulk of my income comes from my office job, but I also teach a couple of evening classes.
text: The bulk of the criticisms were invalid.
glosses: The major part of something.
Majority, balance.
examples: text: I understood the bulk of what you were saying, just one of two points I need to hear again.
glosses: The major part of something.
Gist.
glosses: Dietary fibre.
topics: transport
glosses: Unpackaged goods when transported in large volumes, e.g. coal, ore, or grain.
glosses: A cargo or any items moved or communicated in the manner of cargo.
topics: bodybuilding
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: Excess body mass, especially muscle.
topics: bodybuilding
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A period where one tries to gain muscle.
qualifier: brane cosmology
glosses: A hypothetical higher-dimensional space within which our own four-dimensional universe may exist.
examples: text: ...haunted the chocolate-houses, beat the watch, lay on bulks, and got claps;
ref: 1704, [Jonathan Swift], “Section II”, in A Tale of a Tub. […], London: […] John Nutt, […], →OCLC:
text: Methought I had, and often did I strive
To yield the ghost, but still the envious flood
Stopped in my soul and would not let it forth
To find the empty, vast, and wand'ring air,
But smothered it within my panting bulk,
Who almost burst to belch it in the sea.
ref: c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:
text: little Cupide stroue
Within her bulke, because that she had woue
The web that wrought Nastagio all his woe
ref: 1587, George Turberville, Tragical Tales:
glosses: The body.
Derived terms: barrel bulk
break bulk
break-bulk
bulkage
bulk bill
bulk billing
bulk cargo
bulk carrier
bulk data
bulk density
bulk eraser
bulkish
bulk large
bulklike
bulk liquid
bulk mining
bulksome
bulk supply
bulk technology
bulk viscosity
bulkwise
clean bulk
debulk
dirty bulk
microbulk
ore-bulk-oil carrier
outbulk
overbulk
permabulk
pseudobulk
semibulk