Bite the Bullet
What it means
Accept something painful you cannot avoid, and get on with it without complaining.
Where it comes from
The story usually told is of battlefield surgery before anaesthetic, with a bullet to clamp your teeth on. Leather straps were the actual practice, and the phrase only turns up in print in 1891, in Kipling.
Read the longer story behind Bite the Bullet →
The puzzle it came from
Bite the Bullet was the answer to the Phrasicle of April 4, 2025. The clue read ____ the ____, and the words came out of a grid where every neighbouring pair makes a two-word phrase.
Play today's Phrasicle Play the April 4, 2025 puzzle
Show the solved grid (this spoils the April 4, 2025 puzzle)
couch
potato
chip
bag
lady
sound
bite
mark
up
town
coin
purse
hook
worm
hole
black
magic
bullet
proof
reading
Phrasicle: Bite the Bullet