Bite The Bullet
Corinne Doolittle
Professor Culverson
English1101- 8:00
17 October 2013
Bite The Bullet
Clichés that you heard when you were a kid have been used for centuries, and are still being used. We think about clichés being used as slang, no one ever pays attention to how it came upon. They just use it because it made sense to them in what they are explaining. Every saying or phrase has its own story of how it was used such as “bite the bullet”.
People have used the expression “bite the bullet” for centuries. This expression first originated in the twentieth century before anesthesia was made as a distraction from the pain. Bullets were given to the wounded soldiers from battle to bite on to brace themselves for surgery. The cliché basically means to accept or brace yourself for something distressing or unpleasant. The expression is still relevant today. Now when we use the term “bite the bullet”, it’s figurative.
In an interview I had with my father, I asked, “How was the cliché bite the bullet used in the past?” He said, “As a child, I would always hear an elder using this cliché as a lesson for a bad decision that were made by myself and others. I never understood the expression until I was a teenager. One day in my neighborhood, I played baseball in a parking lot near abandoned apartments with my friends Rock, Leek, and Scoop. We found an old baseball bat in my grandmother’s attic and an old baseball in a ditch and decided to play baseball. We used big rocks from ruined concrete as bases. Leek was the pitcher and I was the first to hit. When I hit the ball, it flew and hit someone’s car window. My friends and I ran as fast as we could, because we knew someone saw it happen. I told my mom and she said “Well Corey, you’re just going to have to bite the bullet and tell the owner of the car what you have done.” My mom always used the cliché, bite the bullet. Her meaning of bite the bullet is whatever situation you are in you have to take responsibility.” In this
Professor Culverson
English1101- 8:00
17 October 2013
Bite The Bullet
Clichés that you heard when you were a kid have been used for centuries, and are still being used. We think about clichés being used as slang, no one ever pays attention to how it came upon. They just use it because it made sense to them in what they are explaining. Every saying or phrase has its own story of how it was used such as “bite the bullet”.
People have used the expression “bite the bullet” for centuries. This expression first originated in the twentieth century before anesthesia was made as a distraction from the pain. Bullets were given to the wounded soldiers from battle to bite on to brace themselves for surgery. The cliché basically means to accept or brace yourself for something distressing or unpleasant. The expression is still relevant today. Now when we use the term “bite the bullet”, it’s figurative.
In an interview I had with my father, I asked, “How was the cliché bite the bullet used in the past?” He said, “As a child, I would always hear an elder using this cliché as a lesson for a bad decision that were made by myself and others. I never understood the expression until I was a teenager. One day in my neighborhood, I played baseball in a parking lot near abandoned apartments with my friends Rock, Leek, and Scoop. We found an old baseball bat in my grandmother’s attic and an old baseball in a ditch and decided to play baseball. We used big rocks from ruined concrete as bases. Leek was the pitcher and I was the first to hit. When I hit the ball, it flew and hit someone’s car window. My friends and I ran as fast as we could, because we knew someone saw it happen. I told my mom and she said “Well Corey, you’re just going to have to bite the bullet and tell the owner of the car what you have done.” My mom always used the cliché, bite the bullet. Her meaning of bite the bullet is whatever situation you are in you have to take responsibility.” In this
Cited: Ammer, Christine. The Facts on File Dictionary of Clichés. New York: Facts on File, 2001. Kirkpatrick, Betty. “Cliches: Over 1500 Phrases Explored and Explained” St. Martins Press. New York. 1997. Rogers, James T.. The dictionary of cliches. New York, N.Y.: Facts on File Publications, 1985. "bite the bullet - Idioms - by the Free Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.." Idioms and phrases. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2013.http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/bite+the+bullet