Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A personification of England or the English.
- noun A typical Englishman.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun An Englishman; also, the English collectively.
- noun A game in which the contestants throw pennies upon a flat stone divided into sixteen small squares, each marked with a certain number, and score according to the numbers of the squares upon which the pennies remain.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- proper noun A
personification ofEngland
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a man of English descent
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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[36] The term John Bull came into the English language in
Life of Johnson Boswell, James, 1740-1795 1887
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An old cove that they called John Bull -- I don't know his right name, he was a fat old cove -- he used to come there to hire cars, and Henery used to drive him.
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There is one called John Bull on the Guadalquivir, the chief incident in which occurred to me and a friend of mine on our way up that river to Seville.
Autobiography of Anthony Trollope Trollope, Anthony, 1815-1882 1883
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The John Bull was a complete success and had a distinguished career.
The Age of Invention : a chronicle of mechanical conquest Holland Thompson 1906
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The character later starts a large-scale brawl, and in the confusion, a British-themed pub called John Bull's Fish and Chips is blown up.
The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed John Doyle 2009
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Personification of the UK in eighteenth-century prints at the Lewis Walpole Library search 'John Bull' and much, much more.
John Bull tellurian 2008
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Personification of the UK in eighteenth-century prints at the Lewis Walpole Library search 'John Bull' and much, much more.
Archive 2008-07-01 tellurian 2008
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A scandal like this makes me think that maybe 'John Bull' wasn't so far off the mark after all...
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"John Bull," and another from "An Eton Boy," animadverting upon Mr. Seekamp's grammar.
The Magnificent Montez From Courtesan to Convert Horace Wyndham
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Ruskin, Professor, on _Punch's_ representations of the poor, 3; on _Punch_ Staff as citizens, 111; on "General Février," 176; on _Punch's_ politics, 197; on "John Bull," 206; on the "Song of the Shirt," 334;
The History of "Punch" M. H. Spielmann
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