bullies

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of bully.

   The school brought in counselors to work with both the bullies and the kids they targeted.

   The landlord sent a pair of hired bullies to frighten the tenants into leaving.

   Note

   The plural follows the usual rule for a consonant before y: the y becomes ies. It counts people, and the people range widely, from playground tormentors and blustering tyrants to hired thugs and a sex worker's minder. Bully in the sense of bully beef takes no plural; it is a mass noun, like beef itself.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of bully.

   The larger company bullies its smaller suppliers into accepting late payments.

   Whenever he loses an argument, the manager bullies whoever happens to be closest.

   Note

   Both senses of the verb are transitive: someone bullies someone, and the object is the person or group pushed around. The sentence can go on to name what the pressure is for, with into and an -ing verb: she bullies her brother into confessing. It shares its spelling with the plural noun; a subject before it and an object after it mark the verb.

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