To bite the bullet
Meaning: To face something painful with gritted courage.
Language: English
Literally: To clamp a bullet between your teeth
Category: Body & Senses
Origin: Battlefield lore has soldiers biting a soft lead bullet through surgery without anesthesia; Kipling fixed the phrase in print in 1891.
Equivalents in other languages
- German: in den sauren Apfel beißen — literally: to bite into the sour apple
More idioms — Body & Senses
- Hablar por los codos — To talk nonstop.
- Costar un ojo de la cara — To be outrageously expensive.
- Quedarse de piedra — To be stunned speechless.
- 발이 넓다 (bari neopda) — To be extremely well-connected.
- Å ha bein i nesa — To be assertive and able to stand your ground.
- Å snakke rett fra leveren — To speak frankly, without softening anything.
More English idioms
- To go cold turkey — To quit a habit abruptly and completely.
- To cut the mustard — To meet the required standard; to succeed.
- To chew the fat — To chat idly and at length.
- By the skin of your teeth — By the narrowest possible margin.
- To rain on someone's parade — To spoil someone's plans or happy moment.
- To have a chip on your shoulder — To harbor a grudge or a defensive sense of grievance.