What does bullshitted mean?
'Bullshitted' is the past tense and past participle of the verb 'bullshit', which means to speak nonsense, exaggerate wildly, or attempt to deceive someone through confident but insincere talk. The word is strongly informal and mildly vulgar, making it unsuitable for formal contexts, though it is widely used in casual adult conversation, comedy, journalism about politics and business, and everyday storytelling. It can function transitively — describing deceiving another person — or intransitively, describing idle or dishonest talking itself. A passive use such as 'I got bullshitted' conveys that the speaker was misled. The term derives from 'bull', an older English word meaning nonsense or empty talk, combined with a vulgar word for excrement, a combination attested from the early twentieth century. Its enduring popularity reflects its blunt precision: unlike milder terms such as 'bluff' or 'exaggerate', it carries an unmistakable tone of contempt for dishonesty, making it a memorable and expressive choice when candor matters more than politeness.
verbPast tense and past participle of 'bullshit': to talk nonsense or attempt to deceive someone with insincere, exaggerated, or fabricated talk.
- To have spoken nonsense or attempted to deceive someone through insincere, inflated talk (past tense of the verb 'bullshit').
"He bullshitted his way through the interview without knowing anything about the job."
"She admitted she'd completely bullshitted her way through the presentation."
"Don't tell me you actually believed him — he was bullshitted into that deal just like everyone else."
It's one of the few vulgar verbs whose past tense follows perfectly regular grammar — proof that even profanity obeys the rules of English morphology.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bullshitted
'Bullshitted' derives from the verb 'bullshit', a twentieth-century American English formation combining 'bull' — a longstanding colloquial word for empty talk or nonsense, itself possibly linked to older senses of 'bull' meaning absurdity — with a vulgar Germanic-rooted word for excrement used broadly to mean worthless or contemptible things. The compound emerged in American slang in the early decades of the twentieth century and spread rapidly through military, political, and everyday speech. The regular past-tense form 'bullshitted' simply applies standard English inflection to the base verb.
Related word forms
How bullshitted is actually used
Strongly informal and mildly vulgar; inappropriate in formal writing, professional settings, or polite conversation, though common in casual speech among adults. As a passive construction ('got bullshitted'), it implies being deceived.
Easily confused with bullshitted
'Bullied' means having been subjected to intimidation or mistreatment by a bully, whereas 'bullshitted' means having been deceived with nonsense or having spoken nonsense oneself.