bellow

bellow like a (wounded) bull

cliché To yell or scream very loudly and aggressively. My father started bellowing like a wounded bull when I told him I had dropped out of college. For a woman of such small stature, she sure does bellow like a bull when she's angry! My goodness, why are those kids outside bellowing like a wounded bull? Don't they know how late it is?

See also: bellow, bull, like

bellow out

1. To yell something. The security guard was bellowing out instructions to all the cars pulling into the parking lot. Mom, we're right here. No need to bellow out instructions! Sounds like another disgruntled customer is in the lobby and bellowing out a list of complaints.

2. To expel something. You can't see far into the distance with all of the smoke being bellowed out by the factories along the river. Boy, that tractor trailer is bellowing out some serious diesel fumes! Phew, it stinks! Fall is definitely on the way—there's a chill in the air, and most people's chimneys are bellowing out smoke.

See also: bellow, out

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

bellow something out

to cry something out loudly with great force. Don't just say it. Bellow it out! Bellow out your name so we know who you are!

See also: bellow, out

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

bellow like a (wounded) bull, to

To scream in outrage. The simile is almost 2,500 years old, from the time of the Greek poet Aeschylus, who wrote, “He bellowed like a bull whose throat has just been cut.” Strictly speaking this cliché is a tautology, since to bellow means “to roar as a bull,” and has done so since the era of Middle English. Shakespeare wrote, “Jupiter became a bull and bellow’d” (The Winter’s Tale, 4.3).

See also: bellow, like, to

The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer