bullet
Americannoun
-
a small metal projectile, part of a cartridge, for firing from small arms.
-
a cartridge.
-
a small ball.
-
Printing. a heavy dot for marking paragraphs or otherwise calling attention to or itemizing particular sections of text, especially in display advertising.
-
Cards. an ace.
verb (used without object)
idioms
noun
-
-
a small metallic missile enclosed in a cartridge, used as the projectile of a gun, rifle, etc
-
the entire cartridge
-
-
something resembling a bullet, esp in shape or effect
-
stock exchange a fixed interest security with a single maturity date
-
commerce a security that offers a fixed interest and matures on a fixed date
-
commerce
-
the final repayment of a loan that repays the whole of the sum borrowed, as interim payments have been for interest only
-
( as modifier )
a bullet loan
-
-
slang dismissal, sometimes without notice (esp in the phrases get or give the bullet )
-
printing See centred dot
-
See bite
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of bullet
1550–60; < Middle French boullette, equivalent to boulle ball ( see bowl 2) + -ette -ette
Explanation
A bullet is the metal object that is fired out of a gun when its trigger is pulled. Without bullets, a gun is harmless. If someone talks about ammunition for a gun, they're talking about bullets. A bullet doesn't usually contain explosives but does its damage by penetrating whatever — or whomever — it hits. The Middle French source of bullet is boulette, "cannonball" or "small ball," from boule, "a ball," with its Latin root bulla, "round thing." To "bite the bullet" means to withstand an unpleasant but necessary situation, from the (possibly fictitious) practice of patients biting bullets during painful operations.
Vocabulary lists containing bullet
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
According to ABC7, a white pickup truck was spotted with bullet holes in the windshield.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
Their mostly anonymous work personalized mass-produced material by decorating dog tags and coins, and recycling debris such as discarded shell and bullet cases.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
“I think it’s a Band-Aid on a bullet wound,” Frangie said.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 26, 2026
Long-term investors should just bite the bullet and buy these.
From Barron's ● Jun. 22, 2026
If they hadn't continually searched for the bullet with germ-laden fingers and probes, the president probably would have survived.
From "Ambushed!" by Gail Jarrow
"We settle our differences not with bullets, but with open and vigorous debate," Trump said.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
He even devises a way to keep the goats corralled so that he doesn’t have to chase them down or use up his precious bullets and gunpowder.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Asked about Valdez, Bis said law enforcement deployed chemical irritants including pepper balls, but not rubber bullets, after agitators attempted to breach the perimeter at Glass House Farms.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2026
Together they scrapped the non-confrontational "hugs not bullets" policy of her predecessor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and pursued open collaboration with US security agencies.
From Barron's ● May 10, 2026
The finished bullets he put into his bullet pouch.
From "Little House in the Big Woods" by Laura Ingalls Wilder
For a follow-up about “top family-friendly hikes,” Siri delivered a clean, bulleted list, citing several web sources.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026
Less than two minutes later, Mendoza hit a leaping Charlie Becker on a perfectly bulleted pass to the end zone for a 21-yard touchdown and an eventual 10-0 lead.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 1, 2026
He noticed that he had most of the symptoms on the bulleted list.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 16, 2023
Next quarter Gannett will roll out a live pilot program using AI to identify the most important points of an article and create bulleted summaries at the top of it.
From Reuters ● Jun. 16, 2023
Oksi bulleted down from the sky and alighted on the wooden box.
From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George
Wright — out of necessity, or sanity-preservation — moves chronologically, bulleting each of their 25 albums and chasing Sparks' hope for fortune and adoration across their many troughs and peaks.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 17, 2021
With one snap of her head, she redirects all the momentum from the cross, bulleting the ball into the near corner.
From Slate ● Jun. 19, 2019
“Society to working moms:” she wrote in the April 18 post before bulleting a list of the unreasonable expectations the modern mother faces.
From Fox News ● Apr. 27, 2019
In the distance, a monstrous wheel of metal with a thousand sharp, jagged teeth spun wildly, tearing at the coal, sending shards of black rock bulleting through the air.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2015
It crashes down on the ball, bulleting it over the net.
From "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
