bull session
1
7.9
- noun
- Informal
:
charla informal
- After dinner, we sat around the table for a relaxed bull session where everyone shared stories.
- late-night bull session
- college bull session
- night bull session
Examples
-
Charles and Frankie were also building cars, so we met up at Frankie's studio a few weeks ago for a day of design, construction, and the bull session that invariably occurs whenever the three of us get together.
Blog text (13) -
Look, Tom, You've been in on a lot of bull sessions.
-
Before, the main topic of our bull sessions had been baseball.
Fiction book (1994) -
I enjoyed hearing such an intense, international bull session, with people coming from so many different directions.
Blog text (5) -
He gave himself up to them for conferences, extra study dates, and simple bull sessions in a way that few colleagues would imagine any longer.
Fiction book (2001) -
Golly, those bull sessions you and Rupert used to have at school.
-
"This old pay clerk," any sailor you care to name might be saying in a bull session, "was supposed to pay off the whole ship's company of this battle wagon in dry dock."
Fiction book (1998) -
After it was all over and they agreed they were going to do it, we were having a kind of bull session, and I sort of digressed a little bit in this way: I have a couple of suggestions; I have some unsolicited advice for you.
Academic text (1991) -
Paradoxically, in the GOP collective bull session, Trump the bullshitter disrupted the party by being a truth-teller.
Academic text (2016) -
When he was a student at the university, a gang of fellow students was having a rowdy bull session, and one of the rowdies went up to the young Thomas and told him, "Hey, Tomaso, there is some ridiculous thing - was it an elephant? - outside?"
Blog text (12)
Synonyms
8
7.9
A short informal meeting to make quick decisions
1
7.0
A meeting where many people talk about a topic, often with little action
1
7.5
A short informal meeting for a group to discuss ideas and make plans
How Informal
- Informal
1
7.9
3
2.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun 'session' clearly signals a meeting, and if a learner recognizes 'bull' in its slang sense of nonsense or exaggerated talk, the idea of an informal, freewheeling discussion can be inferred. However, the slang register and cultural usage of 'bull' (and the idiomatic compound) are not guaranteed to be known by a B1 learner, making the link only partially predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
Bull session comes from old American slang where bull meant 'talking nonsense' or bragging, so imagine friends sitting around telling stories and jokes for hours. That's why a bull session means an informal group conversation with no set topic.