7/11/2023 0 Comments Biting the bullet synonyms![]() ![]() A soldier who, as the term is, sings out at the halberts. In it, he defines the term nightingale and uses the phrase in his definition: The latter dates to the late 1700s in the text A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose. However, there does appear to be early evidence of use of the similar phrases bite the cartridge and chew a bullet. This is speculation, though, as there don’t seem to be historical records of the phrase bite the bullet. Because lead, the main material in a bullet, is soft, the doctors knew it wouldn’t break their patients’ teeth and thus be an acceptable alternative.Īnother thought is that because pieces of wood or wooden sticks are called billets, the phrase could have begun as bite the billet-never referring to bullets at all-yet, over time, been modified and changed to bite the bullet. It’s thought that on the battlefield when perhaps wood or leather wasn’t available, soldiers may have instead been given a bullet to clench in their teeth. The purpose was twofold: to keep them somewhat distracted from the intense pain and also to keep them from biting their tongues. One holds that, before anesthesia was available during surgery, patients would be given a wooden stick or strip of leather to bite down on.
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