bulldozer

Originally bull-dozer (1875, Louisiana, US), in the bullier and terrorizer sense; bulldoze +‎ -er. The name for the earthmoving machine came later, figuratively, from that sense.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbʊlˌdoʊzɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbʊlˌdəʊzə/

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bulldozer (plural bulldozers)

1. A tractor with caterpillar tracks and an attached blade for pushing earth and building debris for coarse preliminary surface grading, demolishing building structures, etc.

   Synonym: dozer (clipping)

   Hypernym: heavy equipment

   Coordinate terms: backhoe, front-end loader, grader

   • 1943 September and October, “Railway Construction and Operation at War Department Depots”, in Railway Magazine, page 262:

     The bulldozer is a caterpillar tractor on the front of which is mounted a heavy steel blade which can be moved up and down by hydraulic gear. By sheer brute force it can push down trees and hedges, remove obstructions (including light brickwork) and level and consolidate newly-tipped banks.

   • 2016 May 4, Nicky Woolf, “Fort McMurray: Canada wildfires force evacuation of oil sands city”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     More than 100 provincial and municipal firefighters were brought in, with helicopters and aircraft used to drop water and fire retardant, while bulldozers were digging firebreaks.

   • 2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:

     Typically for the 'get-on-with-it' era, the railway and military worked like demons to restore the vital rail link. The crater was rapidly filled in and the earth tamped solid, the wreckage was removed by breakdown trains, new rails and sleepers were rushed forward by willing hands, and US Army bulldozers piled in. By 2020 on the same day, both tracks were open for traffic again where there had been a gaping pit just hours before.

2. One who bulldozes.
3. (historical, chiefly in the plural) A member of a self-identified group of white US Southerners who colluded to influence outcomes of post-Reconstruction elections by intimidating, coercing and bullying black voters and legislators, including burning down houses and churches, flogging and murdering opponents.
4. (by extension) A bully; an overbearing individual.

• (member of intimidating white US Southerners): regulator

• blade (slang, 1940s and after)

bulldozer (third-person singular simple present bulldozers, present participle bulldozering, simple past and past participle bulldozered)

1. To bulldoze (demolish with a bulldozer).
2. To bulldoze (push through forcefully).

   They bulldozered through the crowd.

• bulldozer on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Borrowed from English bulldozer.

bulldozer c (definite plural bulldozeren, indefinite plural bulldozere, definite plural bulldozerne)

1. a bulldozer (crawler tractor with an attached blade)

Borrowed from English bulldozer.

• IPA^(key): /bul.do.zɛʁ/, /byl.../, /...zœʁ/

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bulldozer m (plural bulldozers)

1. bulldozer

   Synonyms: bouldozeur, bull

• “bulldozer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Borrowed from English bulldozer.

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bulldozer m (invariable)

1. bulldozer

   Synonym: apripista

Unadapted borrowing from English bulldozer.

• IPA^(key): /bulˈdouseɾ/ [bul̪ˈd̪ou̯.seɾ]
  • Rhymes: -ouseɾ

• • Rhymes: -eɾ

bulldozer m (plural bulldozers)

1. alternative form of buldócer

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

• “bulldozer”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
• Manuel Seco; Olimpia Andrés; Gabino Ramos (3 August 2023), “bulldozer”, in Diccionario del español actual [Dictionary of Current Spanish] (in Spanish), third digital edition, Fundación BBVA [BBVA Foundation]

bulldozer c

1. a bulldozer

• schaktmaskin

• bulldozer in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• bulldozer in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)