▪ I. bulk, n.1
(bʌlk)
Forms: 5 bolk(e, 5–7 bulke, 6 bulcke, boulke, bowlke, (5–6, 9 Sc. bowk, see bouk), 7 bulck, (boak), 6– bulk.
[Of complicated etymology. The coincidence in meaning with ON. *bulki, Icel. b{uacu}lki ‘heap, cargo of a ship’ (Vigf.), Da. bulk lump, clod (cf. mod.Icel. b{uacu}lka-st to be bulky), suggests that the word, though not recorded before 15th c., may (in the senses ‘heap’, ‘cargo’) be of Scandinavian origin. Within a few years of its first appearance, bulk occurs in the senses ‘belly, trunk of the body’, due app. to confusion with bouk, which word it has entirely superseded in literary English. (Cf. however, the Flemish bulck ‘thorax’ in Kilian.) The sense of ‘size’ (branch III) seems to have been evolved chiefly from the notion of ‘body’, though it may be partly due to that of ‘heap’ or ‘cargo’. The form boak, used by N. Fairfax 1674 indiscriminately with bulk in the sense of ‘magnitude’, is apparently:—ME. bolk.]
I. Heap, cargo.
1. a. A heap; spec. the pile in which fish are laid for salting; a pile of tobacco made up to undergo sweating. U.S.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 43 Bolke, or hepe, cumulus. 1602 Carew Cornwall 33 a, Pilchards are first salted & piled vp..vntil the superfluous moysture of the bloud & salt be soked from them: which accomplished, they rip the bulk & saue the residue of the salt. 1725 De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 297 All the gold they found..should be put together in a bulk every night. 1784 J. Smyth Tour U.S. II. 135 When the tobacco house is quite full,..all that is within the house is..carefully placed in bulks, or regular rows one upon another. 1850 Rep. Comm. Patents 1849 (U.S.) 322 Two rows or bundles are put in a bulk. 1902 U.S. Dept. Agric., Farmers' Bulletin No. 60. 14 Before the sweat is completed the bulk is pulled down and built up eight or ten times. |
| attrib. 1693 in Cal. Virginia St. Papers (1875) I. 48 An answer to a former message of yours relating to the Act of Ports & Bulke Tobacco. |
b. The cargo of a ship; a cargo as a whole; the whole lot (of a commodity). Phrase, to break bulk (see break v. 43).
| 1575 in Hist. Glasgow (1881) 117 Breking bowk [of a cargo]. 1626 Sir R. Boyle in Lismore Papers (1886) II. 190 To keep them from breaking Bulck, and from selling their goods at an vndervallue. 1776 T. Paine Com. Sense (1791) 58 The premiums to be in proportion to the loss of bulk to the merchants. 1884 Harper's Mag. June 51/2 Until this is done the bulk of his cargo can not be broken. a 1888 Mod. The bulk is not equal to sample. |
c. in bulk (of fish, etc.): lying loose in heaps, without package; (gen.) in large quantities. to load (a ship) in bulk: to put the cargo in loose, when it consists of wheat, salt, or the like. to sell in bulk: to sell the cargo as it is in the hold; to sell in large quantities.
| 1678 New Castle (Del.) Court Rec. (1904) 253 Tobacco which was struck & Lay in bulke. 1727 De Foe Eng. Tradesm. xx. (1841) I. 195 There was an old office erected in the city of London for searching & viewing all the goods which were sold in bulk. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), She is to be laden in-bulk; as with corn, salt, etc. 1848 C. A. Johns Wk. at Lizard 53 This process is continued until the pile is several feet high..The fish are now said to be ‘in bulk’. 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xxiv. 619 Wine..sold either in bulk or by retail. 1908 Mod. Business II. ii. 165/1 It is possible for traders to effect a considerable saving by buying in bulk. 1928 [see coupon 2]. |
II. Senses belonging to bouk.
† 2. a. = bouk 1, 2. The belly; also the trunk, the body generally. Obs.
| c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture in Babees Bk. (1868) 145 Þen ley bulke, chyne, & sides, to-gedire. 1533 Elyot Cast. Helth (1541) 89 The boulke, called in latyn thorax, whiche conteyneth the brest, the sides, the stomake, and entrayles. 1570 Levins Manip. 187 Y⊇ Bulke, thorax. 1575 Turberv. Bk. Venerie 215 They kill and smoother them, or breake their bulckes with the force. 1594 Shakes. Lucr. 467 His hand..May feele her heart..Beating her bulke. 1632 Heywood Iron Age ii. iii. i. Wks. 1874 III. 392 My sword through Priams bulke shall flie. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 782 His Bulk too weighty for his Thighs is grown. 1718 Pope Iliad xi. 458 His arm and knee his sinking bulk sustain. |
† b. A dead body, carcase. Obs.
| 1575 Turberv. Bk. Venerie 175 Lette the huntesman take out of his wallet..small morsels, and put them into the Bulke of the hare. 1612 Heywood Apol. Actors (1841) 20 See a Hector..trampling upon the bulkes of Kinges. 1637 Rutherford Lett. No. 141 (1862) I. 336 Christ shall..mow down His enemies & lay bulks..on the green. |
c. With some notion of 4: A body of great proportions, a huge frame (chiefly with adj. implying large size); also fig.
| 1587 Greene Poems (1861) 285 Trees Whose stately bulks do fame th' Arabian groves. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iv. iv. 130 Though the great bulke Achilles be thy guard. 1624 Heywood Captives ii. ii. in Bullen O. Pl. IV, That grand maister Of mechall lusts, that bulke of brothelree. 1718 Pope Iliad xvii. 837 Behold the bulk of Ajax stands, And breaks the torrent of the rushing bands. 1821 Shelley Adonais ii, He had adorned and hid the coming bulk of death. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. lxx. 11 Dark bulks that tumble half alive. |
† 3. transf. a. The hull or hold of a ship; cf. Ger. bauch. b. = bouk 2 b; ? the main body or nave of a church; cf. body n. 8 a. (Possibly the sense may be ‘crypt’, cf. It. buca, Tommaseo's Dict.). c. The part of a vehicle fitted to receive the load; cf. body n. 8 g, buck n.5 3.
| c 1450 Lonelich Grail xxviii. 189 Thanne to þe bowk of þe schippe gan he gon. 1518 Will of Selwode (Somerset Ho.), Bowlke of the same churche. 1546 Strype Eccl. Mem. II. App. A. 9 And so was it [the corpse] reverently setled in the bulk of the chariot. 1611 Cotgr., Vaisseau d'un navire, the bulke, bellie, or bodie of a ship. 1652 Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 191 The rest of the bulk of their Vessels..was cover'd with Hides. 1678 Lond. Gaz. No. 1269/3 Her Bulke is still kept entire. |
III. Size: cf. 1 and 2 c.
4. a. Magnitude in three dimensions; volume.
| c 1449 Pecock Repr. v. xv. 565 To make this book..eny ouer greet bolk. 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. To Rdr., To another thing that was earlyer and Bulkier, and to somwhat still that was more betimes and more of Boak. 1736 Butler Anal. i. i. 27 What is the certain bulk of the living being each man calls himself. 1795 Southey Vis. Maid Orleans 291 Below, the vault dilates Its ample bulk. 1816 Scott Antiq. xxv, ‘I hope it's bowk eneugh to haud a' the gear’. 1825 M{supc}Culloch Pol. Econ. ii. ii. 141 They [gold and silver] possess great value in small bulk. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 57 Sea water is denser or heavier, bulk for bulk, than fresh water. |
b. esp. Great or considerable volume. Also fig.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §771 Rather thin and small than of Bulk. 1669 Penn No Cross xi. §3 Wks. 1726 I. 332 'Tis Vanity..for a man of Bulk and Character, to despise another of Less Size in the World. 1798 Ferriar Illustr. Sterne iii. 58 The bulk of his materials generally overwhelms him. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 457 The facility and assiduity with which he wrote are proved by the bulk..of his works. |
c. Paper-making. The thickness of paper (see quots.).
| 1903 C. Beadle in C. F. Cross et al. Paper Testing i. 9 The simplest numerical expression of ‘bulk’, (i.e., the bulking qualities of the fibres composing the paper). 1906 R. W. Sindall Paper Technology ix. 100 The bulk of a paper may be expressed in terms of the thickness of a single sheet or the thickness of a ream. 1920 H. A. Bromley Paper & its Constituents iii. ii. 161 Bulk in its most correct sense may be defined as the ratio of fibre volume to total volume. 1969 Brit. Printer June 65/2 In the field of book papers..one can still obtain a ton or two, tailor-made to a particular requirement of shade, bulk and finish. |
d. spec. The thickness of a book without its covers.
| 1906 L. L. Walton in F. H. Hitchcock Building of Book 27 The bulk or thickness that the book must be, to make a volume of proper proportions, is determined. 1960 G. A. Glaister Gloss. Book 48/1 Bulk, the thickness of a book without its covers. The bulk will be less after binding than before. |
e. = roughage 2.
| 1940 G. Bourne Nutrition & War i. 8 This necessity for bulk in food is one reason why we are not likely to have all our food requirements reduced to one small pill. 1950 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. May 485/2 There are three groups of crops suitable for feeding to pigs: Concentrates, semi-bulk foods, and bulk foods. 1962 Which? Jan. 25/1 These are all harmless laxatives, useful if your normal diet produces insufficient bulk. Ibid. 26/2 All preparations used as laxatives are effective by acting as bulk-suppliers, or irritants, or lubricants. |
5. A mass; the collective mass of any object. Often esp. a large mass.
| 1641 J. Jackson True Evang. T. iii. 203 The last Use of redargution did not lie..against the whole bulk of Popery. 1658–9 Col. Briscoe in Burton Diary (1828) IV. 204, I was as much against confirming the laws in a bulk as any man. 1658 Ussher Ann. vi. 153 Locking their ships close together, and making one bulke of them. a 1718 Penn Tracts in Wks. (1726) I. 815 Those who distinguish the Tree in the Bulk, cannot with the like Ease discern every Branch. 1842 Tennyson E. Morris 11 A Tudor-chimnied bulk Of mellow brickwork. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xxx. (1856) 260 A similar bulk of lamp oil, denuded of the staves, stood [frozen] like a yellow sandstone roller. |
6. Greater part, or, in relation to number, the majority; the main body. (Sc. bouk; cf. body n. 9.)
| [1662 Gerbier Princ. 37 As for the main bulk of Palaces, its true some have a greatness in plainness.] 1711 Addison Spect. No. 124 ¶3 Prints..calculated to diffuse good sense through the Bulk of a People. 1752 Hume Pol. Disc. i. 4 The bulk of every state may be divided into husbandmen and manufacturers. 1837 H. Martineau Soc. Amer. III. 279 The bulk of the Presbyterian clergy are as fierce as the slave-holders against the abolitionists. 1866 Bright Sp. Irel. 30 Oct. (1876) 188 The bulk of his land has only been about half cultivated. |
7. attrib. a. = in bulk, as bulk-buying, bulk-purchasing, bulk supply, etc.
| 1693 [see sense 1 a.] 1848 Rep. Comm. Patents 1847 (U.S.) 527 Bulk pork is that which is intended for immediate use or smoking. 1892 Daily News 13 May 5/8 Bulk transport threatens ‘danger to the security, safety, and freedom from interruption of the Suez Canal’. 1906 Daily Chron. 3 Mar. 4/4 Bulk power generation. Ibid. 13 June 4/6 A monopoly of the bulk supply [of electricity]. 1930 Economist 19 July 107/1 The question of import boards for bulk purchases. Ibid. 9 Aug. 272/1 The project of setting up bulk-purchasing import boards. 1932 Times Lit. Suppl. 10 Nov. 824/3 Not only is it impossible for the potentialities of bulk-buying..to be exploited, [etc.]. 1940 ‘M. Innes’ Secret Vanguard xix. 209 Let us worry rather about petrol and bulk wheat. 1949 Hansard Commons CDLXV. 1453, 50 per cent..of the total imports of the country are bulk-purchased by the Government. Ibid. 1558 When we talk about bulk buying, we obviously mean three or four different things. We mean an ordinary large single purchase; we mean centralised buying; and, of course, we mean State trading. |
b. bulk barrel, a barrel of 36 gallons of wort or beer without regard to specific gravity (as distinguished from standard barrel); so bulk gallon; bulk carrier, a ship that carries cargo in bulk; bulk eraser (see quot. 1959); bulk modulus Math. (see quots.).
| 1905 Daily Chron. 29 July 4/5 The discrepancy between the number of ‘standard’ barrels of beer upon which duty is paid and the number of ‘bulk’ barrels actually brewed. 1909 Ibid. 12 May 1/4 The bulk barrel may be of any specific gravity. The average is, I should say, about 1·053. |
| 1909 W. S. Tower Story of Oil vi. 100 Before long tank steamers were also added to the fleet of bulk carriers. 1954 Shipping World 7 July 20/1 The bulk carrier Sunrip, a turbine steamship of about 12,700 tons deadweight..was launched on June 21. 1984 Financial Times 17 Apr. 22 Reduction in the number of..tankers and the introduction of highly efficient..bulk carriers. |
| 1956 R. E. B. Hickman Magnetic Recording Handbk. v. 120 A tape may be cleaned more rapidly by the use of a bulk eraser. 1959 W. S. Sharps Dict. Cinematogr. 82/1 Bulk eraser, a device designed to pass a high intensity alternating current through wound reels of magnetic tape such that the recorded magnetic patterns are completely erased in a matter of seconds. |
| 1889 in G. Birch Handbk. Gauging (1894) 67 When the deduction for tenths reduces bulk gallons to less than those of next lower inch. |
| 1908 E. S. Andrews Theory & Design of Structures i. 9 There is an additional modulus called the bulk or volume modulus (K), which represents the ratio between the unital change in volume and the intensity of pressure or tension on a cube of material subjected to pressure or tension on all faces. 1935 C. G. Burge Compl. Bk. Aviation 194/1 The bulk modulus is that which expresses the relation between stress and change in unit volume when a body is subjected to equal stresses on all faces, such as when a body is under pressure. |
▪ II. bulk, n.2
(bʌlk)
[Not recorded before late 16th c. Etymology doubtful: Prof. Skeat suggests ON. bálk-r, bǫ́lk-r beam (= balk), which might perhaps give ME. *bolk, and mod.Eng. bulk; there is also an OE. bolca ‘gangway of a ship’, supposed to be a parallel form to bealca, balk. Cf. ‘Bulkar..a Beam or Rafter, Lincolnsh.’ (Bailey.)]
A framework projecting from the front of a shop; a stall.
| 1586 Praise of Musicke 44 The tailor on his bulk, the shomaker at his last. 1607 Shakes. Cor. ii. i. 226 Stalls, Bulkes, Windowes, Are smother'd vp. 1680 Vind. Conform. Clergy (ed. 2) 50 Leave him under a Bulk whetting his crooked Knife. 1771 Smollett Humph. Cl. (1815) 156 During the heats of summer, he commonly took his repose upon a bulk. 1875 Hamerton Intell. Life xi. ii. 406 A cobbler in his bulk was out-and-out his master. |
▪ III. † bulk, n.3 Obs. slang.
[cf. bulker.]
(See quots.)
| 1673 R. Head Canting Acad. 35 Bulk and File. The one jostles you whilst the other picks your pocket. 1721 in Bailey. 1725 New Cant. Dict., Bulk, an Assistant to a File or Pickpocket, who jostles a Person up against the Wall, while the other picks his Pocket. |
▪ IV. bulk, v.1
(bʌlk)
[f. bulk n.1, giving a number of unconnected or loosely connected senses.]
1. intr. To be of bulk; to present an appearance of size; to be of weight or importance. lit. and fig.
| 1672 W. Carstares in Story Life 27 Other things would be so far from bulking in our eyes that they would evanish and disappear. 1725 Wodrow Corr. (1843) III. 211 Your loss..bulks not with me in comparison of that of the public. 1832 Carlyle in Fraser's Mag. V. 384 Any one of whom bulked much larger in the world's eye than Johnson ever did. 1859 G. Wilson E. Forbes iv. 91 For us..of this generation, the years between 1831 and 1855 must bulk large. |
2. to bulk (up): to swell up, rise in bulk or mass.
| 1551 Recorde Pathw. Knowl. i. Def., The middle partes nother bulke vp, nother shrink down more then the bothe endes. 1601 Bp. Barlow Defence 116 That corne hath bulkt into a stemme, and branched out into armes..I neuer heard or read. 1883 J. Parker in Homil. Month. Oct. 18 A few coins..shall bulk up into quite a surprising offering. |
† 3. trans. to bulk out: to swell out, stuff out.
(In quot. 1553 the word may be = bolk, belch.)
| 1540 R. Hyrde Vives' Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592) F vi, One of Sathans officers, that usest..so many chosen meats at the ful, bulking out Capons. 1553 Brende Q. Curtius R. iij, Which violence of toung and rashenes of wordes, bulked out..was nothing elles but a declaration and token of his trayterous haste. a 1641 Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 457 The most ancient Churches..were..like some kinde of ships..bulked out upon both sides in the midst. |
4. To pile in heaps, as fish for salting. Cf. bulk n.1 1. Also, to pile (tobacco) in the course of preparing it for use (U.S.).
| 1822 G. Woodley Scilly Isl. i. vi. 154 Pilchards are said to be bulked, when they are piled up in layers, on the pavement of the cellars. 1850 Rep. Comm. Patents 1849 (U.S.) 322 Stripping should never be done in drying..weather, unless the tobacco is bulked up almost as fast as it is stript. 1863 Ret. Agric. Soc. Maine 163 When the weather again becomes moist,..take it [sc. tobacco] down and carefully bulk it away as before directed. Ibid., Care must be taken that the tobacco does not..get too high in case before it is bulked. 1881 Scotsman 12 Apr. 3/1 Sometimes when seals are found in great abundance, they are ‘bulked’. 1902 U.S. Dept. Agric., Farmer's Bulletin No. 60. 17 These are tied up into hands and bulked down for a short time. |
5. Comm. a. To ascertain the bulk of.
| 1883 Times 24 Mar. 6 Indian teas are ‘bulked’ by Her Majesty's Customs—that is to say, each chest is opened and emptied, in order to ascertain the exact weight of the tea and of the package. Ibid. The Customs are not to blame for the bulking of Indian tea. |
b. (See quot.)
| 1931 C. Maughan Markets of London xxix. 104 Most of the descriptions of coffee..are poured out from the bags on to special floors, where they are ‘bulked’, or mixed, in order to ensure that the contents of all the bags are of uniform quality, and they are then rebagged. |
6. trans. To put together (two or more consignments of goods) for transport as one. Also absol.
| 1908 Modern Business Sept. 164/2 Had they been ‘bulked’—i.e. sent as one consignment, from one consignee to an agent to deliver—the company would have had no alternative but to charge the lower rate. Ibid. 165/1 If a merchant can, by bulking several parcels, get them through at a much lower rate. 1928 Daily Express 10 Mar. 9/4 Bulking means..that two or more consignments for different consignees in one town, forwarded at one and the same time, can be charged together as one lot. |
7. To enlarge a book by adding to the number or thickness of its leaves; esp. to make a book look big by printing it on paper of abnormally loose texture. Also intr., to have a specified bulk (see bulk n.1 4 c).
| 1920 Cross & Bevan Textbk. Paper-Making (ed. 5) xiv. 403 A paper either ‘bulks high’ or ‘bulks low’ in relation to its ‘substance’. 1932 B. Blackwell World of Books 41 Setting their faces against the artificial bulking of books. 1937 E. J. Labarre Dict. Paper 114/1 Light and ‘bulky’ papers, the opposite of which are heavy or dense, have ‘bulking’ qualities, and papers are said to ‘bulk well’. 1957 Times Lit. Suppl. 27 Dec. 787/2 For this deterioration publishers are in part to blame in their demand for ‘bulking’ properties. |
▪ V. † bulk, v.2 Obs.
Also 4 bolk.
[Origin unknown.]
intr. ? To beat.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 18511 A-pon þair breistes can þai bulk [Fairf. gon they bolk]. |
▪ VI. bulk(e
var. of bolk Obs., to belch.