bulk

Etymology

From Middle English bulk, bolke (“a heap, cargo, hold; heap; bulge”), borrowed from Old Norse búlki (“the freight or the cargo of a ship”), from Proto-Germanic *bulkô (“beam, pile, heap”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵ- (“beam, pile, prop”). Compare Icelandic búlkast (“to be bulky”), Swedish dialectal bulk (“a bunch”), Danish bulk (“bump, knob”). Conflated with Middle English bouk (“belly, trunk”).

noun

1. Size, specifically, volume.
   The Quantity of Matter is the measure of the same, arising from its density and bulk conjunctly. 1729, I Newton, Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, page 1
   “ Didn't Balbus say this morning that, if a body is immersed in liquid, it displaces as much liquid as is equal to its own bulk? ” said Hugh. 1885, Lewis Carroll, “Knot IX”, in A Tangled Tale, page 58
   By this process the body of the oyster acquires such a plumpness and rotundity, and its bulk and weight are so increased, as to materially increase its selling value. 1887, W. O. Atwater, “The Chemistry of Oyster-Fattening”, in Popular Science Monthly, volume 32, number November, page 77
2. Any huge body or structure.
3. The major part of something.
   the bulk of my income comes from my office job, but I also teach a couple of evening classes.
   I understood the bulk of what you were saying, just one of two points I need to hear again.
   In the case of such a contract, there must be an implied condition that the bulk shall correspond with the sample in quality 1911, Encyclopædia Britannica, volume 24, «Sample», page 119
   the main bulk of a nut roast is generally some form of carbohydrate, intended to lighten the load. December 15, 2011, Felicity Cloake, “How to cook the perfect nut roast”, in Guardian
4. Dietary fibre.
5. (uncountable, transport) Unpackaged goods when transported in large volumes, e.g. coal, ore or grain.
6. (countable) a cargo or any items moved or communicated in the manner of cargo.
7. (bodybuilding) Excess body mass, especially muscle.
8. (bodybuilding) A period where one tries to gain muscle.
9. (brane cosmology) A hypothetical higher-dimensional space within which our own four-dimensional universe may exist.
10. (obsolete) The body.
    little Cupide stroue Within her bulke, because that she had woue The web that wrought Nastagio all his woe 1587, George Turberville, Tragical Tales

adj

1. being large in size, mass or volume (of goods, etc.)
2. total

verb

1. (intransitive) To appear or seem to be, as to bulk or extent.
   The fame of Warburton possibly bulked larger for the moment. 1878, Leslie Stephen, Samuel Johnson
2. (intransitive) To grow in size; to swell or expand.
3. (intransitive) To gain body mass by means of diet, exercise, etc.
   Coordinate term: cut
4. (transitive) To put or hold in bulk.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To add bulk to, to bulk out.