seagull

Pluralseagulls

Formsseagulls, seagulling, seagulled

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A popular name for any of various gulls (family Laridae), white birds often with a dark back, with long pointed wings and short legs.

   A seagull landed on the railing and eyed our sandwiches.

   Flocks of seagulls scattered as the fishing boat returned to the dock.

   Similargull

   Note

   An English compound with a Celtic tail: sea joined to gull, a word taken from a Brythonic language, with cousins in Welsh gwylan and Breton gouelan. It is a catch-all name covering several species of the family Laridae rather than one bird. Its everyday reputation shows in Paul Bigland's 2024 grumble in RAIL about "predatory seagulls the size of dogs" on station platforms.

2. 2
   nounslangUKcountable

   A fan or member of Brighton and Hove Albion, an English soccer club nicknamed after the bird.

   As a lifelong seagull, he travels to every away match.

   The seagulls celebrated wildly when their team won promotion.

   Note

   A nickname from British football slang that covers both sides of the barrier: it names the club's players and the people who follow them. Outside that setting a listener will hear the bird, so the word needs a footballing context, such as a fixture, a result or Brighton itself, before it reads as a person.

3. 3
   verbslangAustraliaBritishNew Zealandintransitive

   In rugby, to run with the back line in open play instead of attending to one's main positional duties.

   Young players often seagull when they lose confidence in the forwards' game.

   The flanker was seagulling out wide while his pack did the hard work.

   Note

   Said only of forwards, in the rugby slang of Britain, Australia and New Zealand: a flanker, a number eight or a whole back row drifting out where the backs play. The participle does most of the work, before a noun (a seagulling number eight) or followed by out wide. The tone can turn to reproach, as when Greig Blanchett wanted forwards to "quit seagulling and actually do some hard graft."

4. 4
   verbNew Zealandintransitive

   To work as a casual, non-union dock laborer hired to load and unload ships.

   Plenty of newcomers seagull on the waterfront before they earn a steady place.

   She seagulled at the port through the lean winter months.

   Note

   A New Zealand word that nearly always brings its setting along: people go seagulling on the wharf, from O. E. Middleton's A Walk on the Beach (1964) to Beryl Fletcher's The Iron Mouth (1993). It names stopgap labor rather than a trade. The 1981 Parliamentary Debates describe it as work taken "to make a crust," and Fletcher lists it beside loading trucks and standing in blood at the Works.

5. 5
   verbintransitive

   To propel a small boat using a British Seagull outboard engine.

   Old hands still seagull out to the fishing grounds rather than trust modern engines.

   We seagulled gently along the canal, the little motor puttering behind us.

   Similarmotor

   Note

   Boating slang built on a brand name: the British Seagull is an outboard engine, so this verb comes from the engine rather than directly from the bird. It describes a way of getting about as much as a piece of equipment. Douglas Eagleson in 2007 called it "a style of outboarding," and the word pairs naturally with aimless motion, as in seagulling around.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A diacritic mark shaped like ̼ that attaches beneath a base letter as a sort of accent.

   Linguists place a seagull beneath a consonant to show it is articulated with the tongue against the upper lip.

   The transcription used a seagull under the t to capture the unusual sound.

   Note

   The name is a picture: the mark ̼ looks like the wide-winged shape of the bird in flight. Because it combines beneath a letter rather than standing alone, people describe it by position, as in a seagull under the t. It behaves like an accent, part of the letter it sits on rather than a separate character.

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