gull
1 Americannoun
verb (used with object)
-
gulls,
present (3rd person singular)
-
gulled,
past participle, past
-
gulling
present participle
noun
noun
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
gullsimple
-
gullssimple
-
have gulledperfect
-
has gulledperfect
-
am gullingprogressive
-
are gullingprogressive
-
is gullingprogressive
-
have been gullingperfect progressive
-
has been gullingperfect progressive
Past
-
gulledsimple
-
had gulledperfect
-
was gullingprogressive
-
were gullingprogressive
-
had been gullingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gull1
1400–50; late Middle English gulle, perhaps < Welsh gŵylan, Cornish guilan (compare French goéland < Breton gwelan )
Origin of gull2
First recorded in 1540–50; perhaps akin to obsolete gull to swallow, guzzle
Explanation
You know those birds that hang out by the ocean, and grab your sandwich if you aren't paying attention? Those are gulls, also known as sea gulls. Gulls are found in every continent, including Antarctica. The noun gull has two very distinct definitions. Gulls are shore birds, of course, but lesser-used meaning of the word is "a person who is easy to fool." Your little brother might be a gull if you can trick him into doing your chores along with his own. You may know the related word gullible, which describes a willingness to believe anything, without questioning whether it is true.
Vocabulary lists containing gull
A Vocabulary Bestiary: Animals That Behave as Verbs
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Much Ado About Nothing
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Twelfth Night
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The lab report concluded that flying debris from the tail section mangled a great black-backed gull whose wing was found on a rooftop with other debris.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026
The incident unfolded when the low-flying gull got caught in the path of a clearance kick by Istanbul Yurdum Spor's goalkeeper during an amateur playoff match against Mevlanakapi Guzelhisar, a club official told AFP Tuesday.
From Barron's ● Feb. 24, 2026
Earlier in 2024, scientists detected H5N1 in a kelp gull and two skuas that were found dead in January and February.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 12, 2026
McQuilkin said the struggling gull population reflects broader ecological problems.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2025
He would not hear of the gull going out to forage.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
I used to vacation in a cabin on Narragansett Bay where I was typically awakened to a symphony of gulls and other birds; I’d often wondered if other jazz musicians saw possibilities in these sounds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
A series of herring gulls have been found doused in oil in the west of the Isle of Man, prompting concerns from conservationists.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
In a recent expedition to Antarctica, new cases were discovered in Antarctic cormorants, kelp gulls, Adelie and gentoo penguins, and Antarctic fur seals, Neira told AFP.
From Barron's ● Feb. 17, 2026
Skuas are large brown seabirds related to gulls that live mainly in polar and subpolar regions.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 12, 2026
Turner sidled his front leg a little to the right and watched the ball come, hearing again the crying gulls and the cresting waves.
From "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary D. Schmidt
And they are easily gulled by simple tricks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
It is inconceivable that none of them would have had contact with friends and relatives in the Philippines who might have been gulled by the American disinformation.
From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2024
Ultimately, the company settled a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit by paying $200 million to 350,000 consumers who had been gulled by “Herbalife’s deceptive earnings claims” into signing on as Herbalife marketers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 16, 2024
An assassin prevented Americans from proving, by spurning Long’s presidential pretenses, that they were less easily gulled than Long assumed.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 15, 2022
Gad! don’t you remember how she spotted that waiter from the Ritz who gulled the lot of us at the Jetée last winter?
From The Silent Barrier by Louis Tracy
The city alleged that Siemens had pulled a bait-and-switch, gulling the city into signing a contract lacking that hard-and-fast guarantee.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2022
That is, among those gulling the public, cynicism is a stronger force; among those being gulled, gullibility is, but the two are not so separate as they might seem.
From New York Times ● Jan. 5, 2022
It also has the potential to massively chill free speech by gulling ISPs and websites into either pulling down totally legal material when faced with any sort of complaint, but also proactively policing free expression.
From Time ● Sep. 4, 2014
The diction was very poor, the gulling scenes rather disappointing for exactly the reasons Michael Billington outlines, and the whole thing could do with some serious cutting.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 3, 2012
For the gulling, tell me, is it humane to talk so to this poor old man?
From The Confidence-Man by Herman Melville
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
