BULK • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Bulk

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/bəlk/ Listen

noun

Bulk n.

1.

Magnitude of material substance; dimensions; mass; size; as, an ox or ship of great bulk. "Against these forces there were prepared near one hundred ships; not so great of bulk indeed, but of a more nimble motion, and more serviceable."

2.

The main mass or body; the largest or principal portion; the majority; as, the bulk of a debt. "The bulk of the people must labor, Burke told them, "to obtain what by labor can be obtained.""

3.

(Naut.) The cargo of a vessel when stowed.

4.

The body. (Obs.) "My liver leaped within my bulk."

Barrel bulk. See under Barrel.

To break bulk (Naut.), to begin to unload or more the cargo.

In bulk, 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.

Laden in bulk, Stowed in bulk, having the cargo loose in the hold or not inclosed in boxes, bales, or casks.

Sale by bulk, a sale of goods as they are, without weight or measure.

Synonyms: Size; magnitude; dimension; volume; bigness; largeness; massiveness.

Bulk n. A projecting part of a building. (Obs.) "Here, stand behind this bulk."

verb

Bulk v. i. (past & past part. bulked; pres. part. bulking) To appear or seem to be, as to bulk or extent; to swell. "The fame of Warburton possibly bulked larger for the moment."

See images of 'Bulk'

Etymology of 'Bulk'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Bulk" Quotes from Famous Books

... the money material must be easy to carry, it must have a large value in small bulk and weight. To carry a bag of wheat on one's back a few miles requires as great an effort ordinarily as does the raising of the wheat, and the cost of carriage for fifty miles even by wagon will often equal the whole value of the wheat. Cattle, while not ...

— Modern Economic Problems - Economics Vol. II • Frank Albert Fetter

... beginning the nature of the questions asked Joan showed that in some way or other the questioner very often already knew his fact before he asked his question? Have you noticed that somehow or other the questioners usually knew just how and were to search for Joan's secrets; that they really knew the bulk of her privacies—a fact not suspected by her—and that they had no task before them but to trick her into exposing ...

— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... it came; and now the Montenegrins moved to meet the attack. Apparently satisfied that there was no question that the center was to be the main objective of the enemy, the Montenegrin staff ordered the bulk of the Balkan army massed there ...

— The Boy Allies in the Balkan Campaign - The Struggle to Save a Nation • Clair W. Hayes

... bonnet, looked like a faintly washed sketch beside a brilliant chromo; and Mr. Ramy, doomed to the traditional insignificance of the bridegroom's part, made no attempt to rise above his situation. Even Miss Mellins sparkled and jingled in vain in the shadow of Mrs. Hochmuller's crimson bulk; and Ann Eliza, with a sense of vague foreboding, saw that the wedding feast centred about the two guests she had most wished to exclude from it. What was said or done while they all sat about the table she never afterward recalled: ...

— Bunner Sisters • Edith Wharton

... some prepared paper. It was found to be perceptibly warmer within the cabin, with its doors closed, and the external coverings of sails, &c., that had been made to exclude the air, than without; nevertheless, when Roswell glanced at a thermometer that was hanging against the bulk-head, he saw that all the mercury ...

— The Sea Lions - The Lost Sealers • James Fenimore Cooper

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