bull·finch

(bo͝ol′fĭnch′)

1. A European bird (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) having a short thick bill and in the male a red breast, blue-gray back, and black head, wings, and tail.

2. Any of several similar finches.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

bullfinch

(ˈbʊlˌfɪntʃ)

1. (Animals) a common European finch, Pyrrhula pyrrhula: the male has a bright red throat and breast, black crown, wings, and tail, and a grey-and-white back

2. (Animals) any of various similar finches

[C14: see bull¹, finch; probably so called from its stocky shape and thick neck]

bullfinch

(ˈbʊlˌfɪntʃ)

(Horse Training, Riding & Manège) Brit a high thick hedge too difficult for a horse and rider to jump

[C19: perhaps changed from the phrase bull fence]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

bull•finch

(ˈbʊlˌfɪntʃ)

n.

a Eurasian finch, Pyrrhula pyrrhula, the male of which has a black, white, and bluish-gray back with a rosy breast.

[1560–70; bull¹ (perhaps in sense “bull-necked”) + finch]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	Bullfinch - United States architect who designed the Capitol Building in Washington which served as a model for state capitols throughout the United States (1763-1844) Charles Bullfinch
	2.	bullfinch - common European finch mostly black and white with red throat and breast Pyrrhula pyrrhula finch - any of numerous small songbirds with short stout bills adapted for crushing seeds genus Pyrrhula, Pyrrhula - bullfinches

Translations

hýl obecný

punatulkku

gil

bullfinch

[ˈbʊlfɪntʃ] N → camachuelo m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

bullfinch

[ˈbʊlfɪntʃ] n → bouvreuil m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

bullfinch

[ˈbʊlˌfɪntʃ] n → ciuffolotto

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Bullfinch will fetch his price any day, only you'd better sell him in this country, because the dealers have so many bills of mine, and so I'd rather he shouldn't go back to England.

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Nay, nay, thy voice is as sweet as any bullfinch; come, sing, I prythee, I would rather hear thee sing than eat a fair feast.

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If they had said I was niece to a piping bullfinch, what would you care?

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I want you to whistle to my bullfinches; as I cannot see them I like to hear them, and we teach 'em airs that way.

"You'll find her so; she must be, to make you learn to whistle to her bullfinches. I am rather out of her books just now, but you will be quite in favour if you treat her live-stock well.

She soon found that whistling to the bullfinches in Mrs d'Urberville's room was no such onerous business when she had regained the art, for she had caught from her musical mother numerous airs that suited those songsters admirably.

Mrs d'Urberville slept in a large four-post bedstead hung with heavy damask curtains, and the bullfinches occupied the same apartment, where they flitted about freely at certain hours, and made little white spots on the furniture and upholstery.

View in context

This $4 million agreement is with Bullfinch One, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sulphide-X, which has acquired the highly prospective tenements surrounding the mine in Western Australia.

Resources & Energy Group enters farm-in to develop and expand high-grade gold mine

Run across the UK by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), the count is an opportunity to tell the wider world about wild birds on the farm including barn owls, bullfinch, lapwing, grey partridge, tree sparrow and yellowhammer.

Farmland bird count

Police said that the arrests in Oxford were not linked to the recent Operation Bullfinch court cases.

Police arrest eight in child abuse probe

The family requests that flowers be omitted and donations in Norma's memory be made to Make-A-Wish, 1 Bullfinch Place, 2nd Floor, Boston, MA 02114.

Norma Rawling

Teaching birds to imitate human melodies was a popular hobby in the 18th and 19th centuries and the bullfinch was the favourite species.

Bullfinches have ability to learn to sing human melodies