noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a gunshot/bullet wound
▪
Deaths from gunshot wounds have soared in this part of London.
bullet point
fire bullets/missiles/rockets etc
▪
Guerrillas fired five rockets at the capital yesterday, killing 23 people.
magic bullet
▪
There’s no magic bullet for school reform.
plastic bullet
rubber bullet
shoot bullets/arrows
▪
They shot arrows from behind the thick bushes.
sweat bullets American English (= be very anxious )
▪
Workers are sweating bullets over the possibility of job losses.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
magic
▪
They have been called magic bullets because of their use in the treatment of cancer.
▪
For the general population, beta carotene is not a magic bullet .
▪
But there is no magic bullet .
▪
A magic bullet for inflation, claim some writers.
rubber
▪
The demonstration was attacked by the military, several women were arrested and at least two shot with rubber bullets .
▪
In Beit Sahour, a women's demonstration of more than 1000 was disbanded with the use of tear gas and rubber bullets .
▪
Yes, he had been there in the thick of it, braving the rubber bullets and the tear-gas.
▪
In February demonstrators calling for Bird's departure were dispersed by police using tear gas and rubber bullets .
silver
▪
Perhaps silver bullets would have done the trick.
▪
A pilot scale rig dedicated to the exploration and development of the silver bullet process has been fully operational for some months.
▪
To kill the witch you need a silver bullet .
single
▪
The man fired a single bullet , and the decapitation of St Michael prevented him from suffering the same fate.
▪
But that single bullet had destroyed Leyland as well as Maria.
▪
The single bullet hit the pimp right in the heart at fifteen feet.
▪
All four had been shot through the back of their heads with a single bullet as they slept.
▪
Then the woman watched a gunman fire single bullets , one by one, into the back of their heads.
stray
▪
Dimples like heavy rain spotted his wings as stray bullets went through, and then he reached the belt of anti-aircraft fire.
▪
Many people were killed; four white spectators were unintentionally killed by stray bullets .
▪
A stray bullet hit and killed the baby.
▪
Five of the stray bullets bracketed him, whining angrily past to star the wall behind him.
▪
Thirty-two men had got over and the only people hurt had been two patrolling guards hit by stray bullets .
▪
Probably a stray bullet , I guess.
■ NOUN
wound
▪
Some of them also had other bullet wounds .
▪
Because of the bullet wounds , the casket had been closed, which was a relief for him.
▪
Of the ten animals successfully darted, nine had buckshot or bullet wounds .
▪
In real life, Selena ran out of that motel room with a bullet wound , and bled to death.
▪
There were two bullet wounds , one on the shoulder and a deeper one behind the head.
▪
Seven bullet wounds , or nine, or 13, according to various accounts.
▪
They were both back and front, obviously bullet wounds; and there was another old wound high on his right arm.
▪
Y., resident still limps from a bullet wound suffered days after his rescue effort.
■ VERB
bite
▪
In the February issue I warned you that I was going to bite the bullet and buy a real computer.
▪
You see, as Job Survivor I am sweating bullets by night, biting bullets by day.
▪
So, this week, Priddle bit the bullet .
▪
If the Socialists win the election, they too will have to bite the bullet .
▪
It means Labour biting the bullet .
▪
Shouldn't we bite the bullet now and legislate, as many are suggesting?
▪
When fate marks you down for immortality you'd just better bite the bullet and lace your boots up tight.
die
▪
If these people were dying from bullets and bombs, they would never be out of the headlines.
▪
John and Robert Kennedy, his two most famous uncles, died from assassins' bullets in the 1960s.
▪
In his latest role, Michael Melia dies with a bullet through the head.
▪
Ballistic evidence suggested that, in the shoot-out, the policeman may have died from a police bullet .
dodge
▪
Bush dodged a bullet when Chavez was forced out.
▪
Tanya and her daughter live in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, where they dodge bullets and gangs.
find
▪
Fox had found a bullet bedded in the ground and a cartridge case to go with it.
▪
For the second time in his life, Langford found bullets whining and cracking above his head.
▪
The six, Hispanics from 15 to 40 years old, were found face down with bullet wounds in their heads.
fire
▪
He fired one more tap-loaded bullet , then ran back parallel to the road.
▪
I fired once and the bullet entered her temple at her hair line.
▪
The man fired a single bullet , and the decapitation of St Michael prevented him from suffering the same fate.
▪
The device, which used a shotgun modified to fire bullets , was concealed in a wooden box hidden among trees.
▪
A gun is known to fire bullets at precisely three hundred and thirty meters per second.
▪
The head gave a sudden twist and Jack fired two more bullets into it.
hear
▪
He heard the fluttering of bullets before the fast slap-slap-slap of an automatic rifle.
▪
I could hear the bullets striking the stalks.
▪
And I didn't hear the bullet leaving the rifle.
▪
It was an easy shot, but as I heard the bullet strike he bounded away.
hit
▪
Musa Anter was hit by four bullets , Orhan Miroglu by three.
▪
Inmates still fighting are hit with rubber bullets .
▪
A postmortem showed he had been hit by five bullets and had also been struck by a number of shotgun pellets.
▪
The gunships had to stop firing as we flared close to the ground because we could be hit by ricocheting bullets .
▪
People were being hit with live lead bullets and were screaming for help.
▪
Nobody was hit by the bullet and the two fleeing men surrendered.
▪
If some one gets hit by a magnum bullet , he is dead.
▪
But it is bait which hit back with bullets .
kill
▪
He had been killed by a shotgun bullet that almost decapitated him.
▪
Many people were killed; four white spectators were unintentionally killed by stray bullets .
▪
The girls usually ignore the soldiers, though some have been killed by random bullets .
pump
▪
These are real thugs who pumped real bullets into real people.
put
▪
If they pack you off to Brighton, they want you to put a bullet in him.
▪
So I picked up my. 303, and put a bullet through him, he said.
▪
I put a bullet close to his head and he dived for cover.
▪
A quick and total resignation - the modern way for an honourable man to put a bullet through his brain.
▪
Alejandro was all for putting a bullet through this she-devil's head and dispatching her to the nearest abattoir.
▪
He'd put a bullet in her brain himself.
▪
A trooper shot the Lieutenant's horse, leaning from his saddle to put the bullet plumb into the beast's skull.
▪
Troughton personally puts a bullet through their brains.
shoot
▪
He was shot with six bullets through the window of a hut as he slept.
▪
Had he been hurt, shot by a renegade bullet ?
▪
Then it just shot bullets at a tin can.
spray
▪
In the first experiment our source is a not very accurate gun which sprays bullets on to the first screen.
▪
Less than two weeks earlier, two Fort Lauderdale clinics had been sprayed with bullets from a. 45 automatic.
stop
▪
Social service is important, but not to the extent of stopping a bullet .
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a hail of bullets/stones etc
▪
At 8am police officers, accompanying prison staff, tried to enter the centre but were met by a hail of stones.
▪
Sandra Mitchley, 35, died immediately in a hail of bullets.
▪
The man got within twenty yards of the tape before a hail of bullets finally brought him down.
▪
The mere appearance of a uniform is often enough to provoke a hail of stones, even a riot.
▪
They knew they had entered small-arms range when a hail of bullets crippled the steering.
▪
Three West Belfast men died in a hail of bullets.
a spray of bullets/gravel etc
bite the bullet
▪
A lot of companies had to bite the bullet and lay off a lot of their employees.
▪
It's not easy, but as a manager, sometimes you have to bite the bullet and fire people.
▪
If the Socialists win the election, they too will have to bite the bullet.
▪
In the February issue I warned you that I was going to bite the bullet and buy a real computer.
▪
It means Labour biting the bullet.
▪
Shouldn't we bite the bullet now and legislate, as many are suggesting?
▪
So, this week, Priddle bit the bullet.
▪
When fate marks you down for immortality you'd just better bite the bullet and lace your boots up tight.
pump bullets into sb/sth
silver bullet
▪
More investment isn't a silver bullet for poor neighborhoods.
▪
A pilot scale rig dedicated to the exploration and development of the silver bullet process has been fully operational for some months.
▪
Perhaps silver bullets would have done the trick.
▪
To kill the witch you need a silver bullet.
spray sb/sth with bullets
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
Another bullet went through the jaw of Lieut.
▪
Bush dodged a bullet when Chavez was forced out.
▪
Carrefour faltered, doubling over as the bullet caught him just below the sternum.
▪
It was loaded with three bullets.
▪
Leaden Like a bullet To supplant Life from its centre.
▪
Round for round plastic bullets have killed over four times as many people as their rubber predecessors.
▪
Shoot the bird to wake it up and switch to the straight-up bullets.