What do you call a sleeping bull?

How to think about it

1. A sleeping bull is a bull that dozes, and “doze” is the key word, so hold on to it.
2. Say the two words together: bull dozes, bull-dozer.
3. The hint points to construction, where a big yellow machine shares that exact sound.
4. A sleeping bull is a bulldozer.

Why “a bulldozer” is the answer

To doze is to sleep lightly, so a bull that dozes is a “bull-dozer”, and a bulldozer is the heavy machine that pushes earth around a building site. The joke works because the machine’s name splits into two ordinary words. It is a short pun, which is why it travels so well among children, and it works in writing as well as out loud because the spelling matches.

Common wrong answers

• A lazy bull. Accurate but not a pun.
• A bull in a china shop. That is a saying about clumsiness, and the bull in it is wide awake.