Yes, but it’s not easy speaking with a bullet in your mouth.Įxactly! Peace and quiet. So, can I stop biting a bullet now, please? It describes having to do something unpleasant or difficult, but necessary. This is The English We Speak from BBC Learning English, and we’re talking about the expression ‘to bite the bullet’. If you want to start dating Jitka you’re going to have to bite the bullet and ask her out! If I’m going to get fit, I’ll have to bite the bullet and start going to the gym. I have a pile of work to finish, so I’m going to have to work all night – I guess I’ll have to bite the bullet. Let’s hear some examples of other people who have to bite the bullet… Sorry, Rob, I can’t understand you – but when someone ‘bites the bullet’, they are forced to do, or accept that they have to do something difficult or unpleasant. It will really provide management with an incentive to bite the bullet. I didn’t force myself, you told me to do it! I had to keep biting the bullet and saying what I wanted. So, Rob, you are being brave and forcing yourself to do something unpleasant, but necessary. OK, Feifei! Here goes… Right, I am biting the bullet. Now, Rob, would you put it between your teeth please? Toy bullets – just to illustrate the point.īullets! What English expression mentions bullets?! O simplemente puede morder la bala proverbial, por as decirlo. This programme comes with a safety warning! It involves bullets – well, not real ones. Sentences with to bite the bullet Or you can just bite the proverbial bullet, as it were. That's because we are not able to record in our normal studios during the coronavirus outbreak. Hello! This is The English We Speak, I’m Feifei… This phrase describes situations where you have to do something unpleasant but can’t be avoided, and Rob is about to do just that to illustrate this for you! Transcript Learn an English expression that involves bullets but isn’t dangerous.

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Skyhorse Publishing, 2014. How this practice could have anything to do with the figurative use of the idiom today, however, is difficult to understand. The Dictionary of Cliches: a Word Lover’s Guide to 4,000 Overused Phrases and Almost-Pleasing Platitudes. N.p.: Amz Digital Services, 2012.Īnother suggested origin is that the expression came from the practice of gunners biting off the end of a paper cartridge of gunpowder to expose the powder to a spark. Idioms in the News – 1,000 Phrases, Real Examples. “Bite on the bullet, old man, and don’t let them think you’re afraid.” 7 Bengelsdorf, Peter.

The phrase appeared figuratively in an 1891 Rudyard Kipling story called The Light that Failed: Oxford: Oxford U, 2010.Īlso, according to the 1796 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose, soldiers (or grenadiers, specifically) being punished for infractions with a whip would bite on a bullet so that they would not show weakness by crying out in pain. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013., 6 Ayto, John. A bullet may seem an odd choice but the soft lead used meant that they would absorb the pressure of the bite without damaging the teeth. Before anesthesia was invented, army doctors performing surgery, setting bones, or cleaning wounds would have their patient bite on a lead bullet or some other object to help endure the pain and stop them from crying out.

“The CEO bit the bullet and surrendered to demands for him to step down from his post.”ĭating from the 1700s, this idiom is said to be of military origin. “Going to prison forced me to bite the bullet and stop drinking.” “At some point, you’re going to have to bite the bullet and stop spending all your money on luxuries,” said Susan’s mom. At that time, bullets had to be primed by filling the casing with gunpowder. This term most likely derives from the time of the British Empire in India. If someone tells you to just bite the bullet, they understand you dont want to carry out the action but want you to do it anyway. Want to see more videos from Idioms.Online? Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Examples Of Use The term bite the bullet means to do something against your will.

Phrases that mean biting the bullet