Bullet Meaning
/ˈbʊlɪt/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA projectile, usually of metal, shot from a gun at high speed.
nounAn entire round of unfired ammunition for a firearm, including the projectile, the cartridge casing, the propellant charge, etc.
Sentence Examples
I'll bite the bullet.
Martin Luther King, Jr., a man of peace, was killed by an assassin's bullet.
He was found to have a single bullet wound in his chest.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The detective found a spent ____ lodged in the wooden floorboard.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ struck the target exactly in the center during the practice day.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English bullet (“an official tag or badge of registration or identification”), from Old French bullete, diminutive of boule (“ball”). Later influenced by Middle French boulette and French boulet.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Then when our powers in points of ſwords are ioin’d / And cloſde in compaſſe of the killing bullet, / Though ſtraite the paſſage and the port be made, / That leads to Pallace of my brothers life, / Proud is his fortune if we pierce it not."
— c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene i:
"G.T.A. I got sentenced to a bullet, did six months at fire camp and got a modification."
— 1986, James Ellroy, Suicide Hill:
"The miser, a-seeking lost gelt, / The doughboy, awaiting the battle, / May possibly know how I felt / While the long years dragged by as the dealer / As slow as the slowest of dubs, / Stuck out the last helping of tickets / 'Till I lifted—the Bullet of Clubs!"
— 1969, Robert L. Vann, The Competitor, volumes 2-3, page 135:
"Just as it appeared Arsenal had taken the sting out of the tie, Johnson produced a moment of outrageous quality, thundering a bullet of a left foot shot out of the blue and into the top left-hand corner of Wojciech Szczesny's net with the Pole grasping at thin air."
— 2011 January 19, Jonathan Stevenson, “Leeds 1 - 3 Arsenal”, in BBC:
"Nakamura is a different animal at 15-minute rapid and five-minute blitz and even more so at one-minute bullet, and in this match he adopted a psychological approach which paid off brilliantly."
— 2020 August 21, Leonard Barden, “Chess: Carlsen fights back from brink to overcome Nakamura in 38-game epic”, in The Guardian:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The detective found a spent ____ lodged in the wooden floorboard.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ struck the target exactly in the center during the practice day.