Modul 4: Idiom 04: Bite the Bullet

Bite the Bullet

Hi. Let’s take a look at the Idiom, ‘Bite the bullet.’ What does this mean? Biting the bullet is getting on with doing an unpleasant task-something that you would really rather not be doing. When somebody tells you to “bite the bullet,” they are saying, “go on”, “get it over and done with”, “Just do it!” It is like when you’ve cut yourself and you have to rip off the plaster. It’s uncomfortable for a moment but you need to do it.

So what is the origin of this idiom?

When we have to go to the hospital to have surgery, the doctors will give us an Anaesthetic so that we don’t feel the pain. This could be a ‘Local Anaesthetic’ which will numb a small area of your body- so you can’t feel it, it could be a ‘Regional Anaesthetic’ which would numb a large area of your body or it could be a ‘General Anaesthetic’ which is when they put you to sleep and operate whilst you are sleeping. But what would happen before Anaesthetics were available? Surely they wouldn’t perform surgery on you if you could feel it? Yes, they did. The idiom refers to the 19th century when they would give the patient a bullet to bite down on to cope with the pain of the surgery. So this is why we say we have to ‘Bite the Bullet’ when we know that we have to go through an uncomfortable situation.

Take a look at our illustration.

A man is lying on a table having surgery on his stomach. He is enduring (going through) an uncomfortable situation. Look at his hands, they are clenched into fists because he is in pain. Just like the idiom, he is biting a bullet to cope with the pain of the surgery, can you see?

Here are some examples before we go to the concept questions…

“I’m going to bite the bullet and ask that girl for her phone number.”

“Terry needs to bite the bullet and accept his punishment.”

“My brother and I are both scared of aeroplanes, so we are going to bite the bullet together and go on holiday overseas.”

“Everybody tells me to ‘bite the bullet’ and do my essays but I don’t want to.”

“Casey bit the bullet yesterday and quit her job.”

Great.

Let’s look at some situations and check your understanding:

1. I have an exam on Friday and I need to revise – read through the material again –, but I don’t want to! Should I bite the bullet and revise? Yes. If I revise now, then I will do well on my exam. 

2. My mum always wanted to be a dancer but she was too scared to quit her day job to pursue that dream. To pursue her dream: to work on it; to spend time to achieve it. I’m glad she didn’t change career because she met my dad at her work later. Did my mum bite the bullet when she decided not to quit her job? No. She chose to play safe.

3. Imagine if I wanted to be a manager of a job but I was scared of confrontation- telling people when they are doing something wrong. Do you think a manager should be able to bite the bullet and handle such situations? Yes. If I wanted to be a manager then I’d need to bite the bullet and tell people when they make mistakes, even if it made me feel uncomfortable. 

4. My dad is a carpenter. He makes tables by hand! The problem is, he is a perfectionist. He never thinks his work is good enough even though the tables are always so beautiful. He can always see imperfections that the customers can’t see.

Do you think my dad has to bite a bullet when handing the table over?

5. When my grandma died, I was dreading the funeral; I was afraid of it. I really didn’t want to go because it would be really sad. 

Do you think I bit the bullet and went to the funeral anyway? Yes, I did. I knew I would regret it if I didn’t.

Great. Now go and practise. See you soon.