Bite the Bullet - The story behind it
Meaning :
"Bite the bullet" doesn't mean a person is biting a hard bullet in his mouth. Literally, this is the meaning. But in an informal phrase, its actual meaning is to make yourself courageous and go through a difficult situation.
To know why ??? You have to read the full article
Bite the bullet -
1. To force yourself to do something difficult.
Examples:
1. Due to my health issues, I decided to bite the bullet and quit my job
2. The retirement couple decided to bite the bullet and sell their sweet home and join the community house.
The stories behind the phrase:
There are two types of stories we had.
1. In the early 17th, they didn't have anaesthesia for the operation. During wartime, most of the soldiers were wounded. To give treatment without anaesthesia was not possible. But they have to face the situation. So doctors ask the soldiers to bite the bullet. By biting it, they can distract their mind from their surgery and ensure that they do not bite their teeth.
Francis Grose describes this in his book (1796), A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue,
“A soldier who, as the term is, sings out at the halberts. It is a point of honour in some regiments, among the grenadiers, never to cry out, or become nightingales, whilst under the discipline of the cat of nine tails; to avoid which, they chew a bullet.”
It was first used as a phrase in 1891 by Rudyard Kipling. He used this as an idiom in his book "The Light that Failed", "Steady, Dickie, steady!’ said the deep voice in his ear, and the grip tightened. ‘Bite on the bullet, old man, and don’t let them think you’re afraid,'"
In his other work, "The Inimitable Jeeves", he mentioned "“Brace up and bite the bullet. I’m afraid I’ve bad news for you.”
2. Another theory from "Indian Rebellion of 1857". When the British conquest India, they treat Indians as their slaves and ask them to fight for their nation (British). They sent many Indian soldiers to other countries as their representative soldiers. At that time, the British gave guns to the Indian soldiers (Hindus and Muslims). They have to bite the cartridge paper before they loaded the gun. Then Indian soldiers came to know that the cartridge paper was greased with pork and beef fat. So the Indian soldiers refused to fight because it was against their religion to bite pork and beef fat. Therefore if they bite the bullet they weren't comfortable with it. But at the same time, they were under British control they didn't do anything against them.
