What does ‘bite the bullet’ mean?
To “bite the bullet” means to endure something painful with courage. Brewer's notes the practice among 19th-century military surgeons of giving a wounded soldier a bullet or leather strap to bite during surgery before anaesthesia was common; the phrase entered popular English from that battlefield use.
Origin
- Brewer's notes the practice among 19th-century military surgeons of giving a wounded soldier a bullet or leather strap to bite during surgery before anaesthesia was common; the phrase entered popular English from that battlefield use.
How to use it
- Used when accepting an unavoidable ordeal.
- Example: I hate the dentist, but I'll bite the bullet and go.
Source:
Last verified: 2026-07-18
- Definitions and origins are drawn from public-domain reference works, primarily Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898), with modern usage notes clearly marked.