![]() This is where the phrase originates from. So soldiers bit the bullet to be able to endure the pain of surgery without anaesthesia. On the battlefield, what was primarily available was a bullet or a leather strap. All soldiers have to bite the bullet when they get their drafting letter.īefore the discovery of anaesthesia, when soldiers were wounded in battle and had to be treated or undergo surgery, they were made to bite on something hard to keep them from screaming out in pain.Given what was as stake, Lisa had to bite the bullet and ignore all the blood as she tried to help the accident victim. Synonyms for BITE-THE-DUST: die, be fatally wounded, bite-the-dust, buy-the-farm, fall, cash-in-one-s-chips, cease living, croak, expire, kick off, drop.Mary has to learn to bite the bullet and face her fears of flying.The accused man bit the bullet as the judge handed down his sentence.When the time comes, I’ll bite the bullet and take my punishment without a fuss.to avoid showing fear or discomfort in an unpleasant situation.to be brave and face a difficult situation.to make yourself endure something unpleasant or painful.to endure a painful experience that you cannot avoid.Wodehouse's character Bertie Wooster in The Inimitable Jeeves (1923): "Brace up and bite the bullet. Whatever the source, by the Victorian era, the expression was in ready use as part of the "stiff upper lip" mentality and by the early 20th century had lost its military connotation and was used in a much more jovial context such as by P.G. It is a point of honour in some regiments, among the grenadiers, never to cry out, or become nightingales, whilst under the discipline of the cat of nine tails to avoid which, they chew a bullet. A soldier who, as the term is, sings out at the halberts. Instead, the likely source appears to be supplied in the definition of a "nightingale" found in the pages of A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, edited by Francis Crose and published in 1796. ![]() The cartridge had to be bitten in order to release the powder and the Sepoys objected on religious grounds - the Muslims concerned that the fat used for the grease was from pigs and the Hindus expressing similar concerns that the fat came from cows - but were told by their commanding officers to get over their religious qualms and "bite the bullet." While the events as stated did happen, and were a catalyst for the Indian Rebellion of 1857, there is no conclusive evidence that the expression originates from there. Meaning to endure a painful experience that you cannot avoid to make yourself endure something unpleasant or painful to be brave and face a difficult. Others say that it originates around the mid 1850s when a new type of rifle was issued to the Sepoys (native Indian soldiers who fought for the British) which used greased paper cartridges. However The Phrase Finder questions this source, pointing out that many artists, including Rembrandt and Hieronymus Bosch, painted scenes of early surgery and none show patients biting on anything. Some say that back in the days when soldiers wounded on the battlefield were treated without the benefits of anesthesia, they bit down on a bullet either to distract themselves from the pain or to avoid cracking their teeth by biting down too hard or simply to avoid crying out. A projectile, usually of metal, shot from a gun at high speed. Sources of this expression all trace back to the military, with at least three variations: This expression was originally used to accept impending hardship with fortitude but in the modern-day is generally used in lighter terms, such as to advise someone to do something that they don't particularly want to do.
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