![]() ![]() Sealed with animal fat, the casing was often difficult to separate from the bullet head, and it had to be opened by biting the casing. At that time, bullets had to be primed by filling the casing with gunpowder. This term most likely derives from the time of the British Empire in India. If someone tells you to just bite the bullet, they understand you don't want to carry out the action but want you to do it anyway. The term bite the bullet means to do something against your will. ![]() ![]() I can assure you, mine are still greater.Search our site by Craig Shrives What Is the Origin of the Saying "To Bite the Bullet"? Malathi, your job is to ensure that the bride and the groom arrive on time.ĭo not worry about your difficulties in mathematics. Please ensure that the money goes to the needy. In other words, you are taking the necessary precaution to make sure that the dog doesn’t bite the person. But in order to ensure that it doesn’t, you may choose to lock the animal up in another room. For example, you may assure your friend that your dog doesn’t bite. In other words, you are guaranteeing something. When you ‘ensure’ something, you do everything you possible can to make it happen. While ‘assure’ is mostly used to talk about people, ‘ensure’ is used to talk about things. The builder assured us that the flat would be ready by June. The CEO assured everyone that there would be no layoffs. When you assure your business partner, for example, that you will have the report ready by Monday, what you are doing is making a commitment to him – you are giving him your word that you will have the report ready on or before Monday. When you ‘assure’ someone of something, you are putting someone’s mind at ease by making a promise that something will be done. Although there is a tendency among some people to use the two words interchangeably, there is a difference in meaning between them. The first vowel in ‘assure’ sounds like the ‘a’ in ‘china’. The word is pronounced ‘in-SHORE’ with the stress on the second syllable. The first syllable of ‘ensure’ is pronounced like the word ‘in’, while the second sounds like the word ‘shore’. There are several ways of pronouncing the two words I will deal with only one here. What is the difference between ‘ensure’ and ‘assure’? (K Mahadevan, Chennai) During wars, when surgeries were performed close to the battlefield, wounded soldiers were given a bullet to bite on. This was to help the patient endure the pain - and also ensure that he did not scream into the doctor’s ears. Before painkillers were invented, when a patient had to be operated on, the doctor usually gave him a piece of wood or a piece of iron to bite on. One of them is that it first began to be used in the military. There are several explanations as to the origin of the idiom. With another increase in the price of petrol, it’s not just the auto-drivers who are biting the bullet. You’ll just have to bite the bullet for a couple of days. Take a deep breath, and force yourself to do something that you don’t really want to. You have been avoiding it for a while, but the time has come for you to face it. ![]() When someone tells you to ‘bite the bullet’, what he is asking you to do is to be prepared to face a rather unpleasant or tough situation. This idiom has been around for several centuries, and it is mostly used in informal contexts. What is the meaning and origin of ‘bite the bullet’? (L Nagaraj, Chennai) ![]()
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