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bulk out

B2 neutral separable transitive
In simple words

To make something bigger or thicker by adding more stuff to it.

Literal meaning: To make something physically bigger on the outside.

Meanings

1 B2 neutral

To make food go further or be more filling by adding extra, often cheaper, ingredients.

"She bulked out the stew with lentils and extra vegetables to feed more people."

Grammar: separable
2 B2 idiomatic neutral

To make a piece of writing, speech, or presentation longer by adding extra, sometimes unnecessary, material.

"He bulked out his essay with long quotations to reach the minimum word count."

Grammar: separable
Usage notes

Used in cooking (adding cheaper ingredients to a dish), writing (adding content to a text to meet a word count), and physical descriptions. Slightly negative connotation in the writing sense, implying the added material is not genuinely valuable.

Commonly used with

meal essay report stew content mixture

Forms

Base
bulk out
I/you/we/they
3rd person
bulks out
he/she/it
Past simple
bulked out
yesterday
Past participle
bulked out
have + pp
-ing form
bulking out
continuous

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