Irish bull


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Irish bull

n.
A statement containing an incongruity or a logical absurdity, usually unbeknown to the speaker. "With a pistol in each hand and a sword in the other" is an Irish bull.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Irish bull

n
a ludicrously illogical statement. See also bull2
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.Irish bull - obscene words for unacceptable behavior; "I put up with a lot of bullshit from that jerk"; "what he said was mostly bull"
bunkum, guff, hogwash, buncombe, rot, bunk - unacceptable behavior (especially ludicrously false statements)
dirty word, obscenity, smut, filth - an offensive or indecent word or phrase
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in periodicals archive ?
Both axioms now appear to be wild Irish bull.' The site was never officially excavated, at least not at the time the book was published.
Their topics include Joyce and the rhythms of the alphabet, Joyce and Malory: a language in transition, "true-born Englishman" and the Irish bull: Daniel Defoe in the "Oxen of the Sun" episode of Ulysses, playing with matches: the Wake notebook and negative correspondence, an action-oriented approach to Joyce's reading notes, and a James Joyce digital library.
An Irish Bull is an apparently logical expression with a built-in inconsistency.
The Northern Irish bull was sold by Derek Hume of Randalstown to fellow Northern Irish breeder Alistair Graham, who runs the 60-cow Madden pedigree herd at Tandragee, County Armagh.
Wisdom takes two forms, he contends, the oracle and the aphorism, and he finds both as he surveys such manifestations as three infinities in Tennyson and Zeno, copy-speech and counter-love in Wordsworth and Frost, the Irish bull from Groucho Marx to Bernard Shaw, and changing the covenant from Delphi to Gettysburg.

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