bulldoze

[boo l-dohz] /ˈbʊlˌdoʊz/
verb (used with object), bulldozed, bulldozing.
1.
to clear, level, or reshape the contours of (land) by or as if by using a bulldozer:
to bulldoze a building site.
2.
to clear away by or as if by using a bulldozer:
to bulldoze trees from a site.
3.
to coerce or intimidate, as with threats.
verb (used without object), bulldozed, bulldozing.
4.
to use a bulldozer:
To clear this rubble away we may have to bulldoze.
5.
to advance or force one's way in the manner of a bulldozer.
Origin
1875-80, Americanism; origin uncertain; the notion that it represents a v. use of bull dose, i.e., a dose fit for a bull, is probably specious; defs. 1, 2, 4, 5 are back formations from bulldozer tractor
Synonyms
3. browbeat, cow, bully, hector; tyrannize.
Examples from the web for bulldoze
  • To get at the bitumen, the companies bulldoze wetlands to create vast open-pit mines.
  • Chaotically, but quickly, the studios are about to bulldoze conventional wisdom about how films should be sold.
  • The government wants to bulldoze the tree and cover the playground with concrete in order to erect a highrise.
  • Not at the wheel of a four-wheel-drive monster that could bulldoze its way through any kind of weather.
  • Elephants are strong enough to bulldoze entire trees and you might think that there can be no defence against such brute strength.
  • So either you really want to bulldoze away everything.
  • Commercial real estate may soon bulldoze the green shoots.
  • Then, bulldoze across the rows starting at the pond center, moving toward the nearer levee.
  • Fuel is required to take them to the landfill and to bulldoze them in when they get there.
  • He did not plant large expanses of lawn, bulldoze the site to make it level, or cut down many trees.
British Dictionary definitions for bulldoze

bulldoze

/ˈbʊlˌdəʊz/
verb (transitive)
1.
to move, demolish, flatten, etc, with a bulldozer
2.
(informal) to force; push: he bulldozed his way through the crowd
3.
(informal) to intimidate or coerce
Word Origin
C19: probably from bull1 + dose
Word Origin and History for bulldoze
v.

by 1880, from an earlier noun, bulldose "a severe beating or lashing" (1876), literally "a dose fit for a bull," a slang word referring to the intimidation beating of black voters (by either blacks or whites) in the chaotic 1876 U.S. presidential election. See bull (n.1) + dose (n.). Related: Bulldozed; bulldozing.

Slang definitions & phrases for bulldoze

bulldoze

verb

To intimidate; overcome by force •Early use of the term is connected with Southern politics of the Reconstruction period and describes the intimidation of black men who wished to vote: to bulldoze employees

[1870s+; fr bulldose, ''to beat, flog with a strip of leather,'' perhaps fr the notion of the dose of force needed to cow a bull]