Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Size, mass, or volume, especially when very large.
  • noun A distinct mass or portion of matter, especially a large one.
  • noun The body of a human, especially when large or muscular.
  • noun The major portion or greater part.
  • noun Thickness of paper or cardboard in relation to weight.
  • noun A ship's cargo.
  • intransitive verb To be or appear to be massive in terms of size, volume, or importance; loom.
  • intransitive verb To grow or increase in size or importance.
  • intransitive verb To cohere or form a mass.
  • intransitive verb To cause to swell or expand.
  • intransitive verb To cause to cohere or form a mass.
  • adjective Being large in mass, quantity, or volume.
  • idiom (in bulk) Unpackaged; loose.
  • idiom (in bulk) In large numbers, amounts, or volume.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To strike; beat.
  • To throb.
  • In the tobacco industry, to form into a bulk or bulks; to leave in the state of bulks: used in this sense with down.
  • To pile in heaps, as fish for salting.
  • To increase in bulk; grow large; swell.
  • To put or hold in bulk or as a mass; fix the bulk of in place: as, to bulk a cargo.
  • To belch.
  • noun A heap.
  • noun Magnitude of material substance; whole dimensions in length, breadth, and thickness; size of a material thing: as, an ox or a ship of great bulk.
  • noun The gross; the greater part; the main mass or body: as, the bulk of a debt; the bulk of a nation.
  • noun The bottom or hold of a ship.
  • noun The entire space in a ship's hold for the stowage of goods; hence, that which is stowed; the mass of the cargo: as, to break bulk for unloading.
  • noun The breast; the chest; the thorax.
  • noun The body of a living creature.
  • noun A partition; a projecting part of a building.
  • noun A stall in front of a shop.
  • noun A large chest or box.
  • noun A pile of tobacco laid up in courses for the purpose of sweating.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To appear or seem to be, as to bulk or extent; to swell.
  • noun obsolete A projecting part of a building.
  • noun Magnitude of material substance; dimensions; mass; size.
  • noun The main mass or body; the largest or principal portion; the majority.
  • noun (Naut.) The cargo of a vessel when stowed.
  • noun obsolete The body.
  • noun See under Barrel.
  • noun (Naut.) to begin to unload or more the cargo.
  • noun in a mass; loose; not inclosed in separate packages or divided into separate parts; in such shape that any desired quantity may be taken or sold.
  • noun having the cargo loose in the hold or not inclosed in boxes, bales, or casks.
  • noun a sale of goods as they are, without weight or measure.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Size, mass or volume.
  • noun The major part of something.
  • noun The result of water retained by fibre.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, perhaps partly alteration of bouk, belly, trunk of the body (from Old English būc) and partly from Old Norse bulki, cargo, heap; see bhel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English bolke ("a heap, cargo, hold"), 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”), related to Icelandic búlkast ("to be bulky"), Swedish dialectal bulk ("a bunch"), Danish bulk ("bump, knob"). Conflated with Middle English bouk ("belly, trunk"), from Old English būc ("belly, stomach, pitcher"), from Proto-Germanic *būkaz (“belly, body”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhōw- (“to blow, swell”), related to Dutch buik ("belly"), German Bauch ("belly, stomach"), Swedish buk ("belly, abdomen"). More at bouk, bucket.

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Examples

  • According to Brix, the weight per English cord and relative heating effect of several air-dry peats -- the heating power of an equal bulk of oak wood being taken at 100 as a standard -- are as follows, _bulk for bulk_: [13] _Weight per _Heating cord. _ effect.

    Peat and its Uses as Fertilizer and Fuel 1869

  • SYNOPSIS use Geo:: Coder:: Bing:: Bulk; my $bulk = Geo:: Coder:: Bing:: Bulk-new (key = 'Your Bing Maps key'); my $id = $bulk-upload (\@locations); sleep 30 while $bulk-is_pending; my $data = $bulk-download; my $failed = $bulk-failed;

    Softpedia - Windows - All 2010

  • SYNOPSIS use Geo:: Coder:: Bing:: Bulk; my $bulk = Geo:: Coder:: Bing:: Bulk-new (key = 'Your Bing Maps key'); my $id = $bulk-upload (\@locations); sleep 30 while $bulk-is_pending; my $data = $bulk-download; my $failed = $bulk-failed;

    Softpedia - Windows - All 2010

  • I have given up trying to buy locally, as a result of this poisoned pricing model and have gone instead to buying in bulk from the left coast.

    Imaginary plastic diseased green shoots Canadian silver bug/Green Assassin Brigade 2009

  • Making pesto in bulk is like stretching and priming a canvas.

    Obscene Fist-Full of Basil Sarah Lenz 2009

  • Making pesto in bulk is like stretching and priming a canvas.

    Archive 2009-07-01 Sarah Lenz 2009

  • In other words, they take the well-worn assumption that buying in bulk is cheaper and exploit it ruthlessly

    The Tesco Way « We Don't Count Your Own Visits To Your Blog 2006

  • There are many reports available that show that samples composed of nanoparticles, all things equal, can lead to better performance than what we call bulk counterparts.

    What can nano do for batteries? Jordi Cabana 2010

  • There are many reports available that show that samples composed of nanoparticles, all things equal, can lead to better performance than what we call bulk counterparts.

    Archive 2010-03-01 Jordi Cabana 2010

  • Very rarely do vodka marketers tell the truth and say, here’s our new vodka, which we buy in bulk from the same distillery that produces vodka for $8 a bottle.

    The Placebo Affect* 2005

Comments

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  • "Heave your bulk over there."

    January 31, 2007