bullet

英 ['bʊlɪt] 美['bʊlɪt]

CET4TEM4考研CET6中低频词常用词汇

复数: bullets;

bullet 子弹

bull, 词源同ball. -et, 小词后缀。

bullet: bullet: [16] Etymologically, a bullet is a ‘little ball’. It comes from French boulette, a diminutive form of boule ‘ball’, from which English also gets bowl, as in the game of bowls. It originally meant ‘cannon-ball’ as well as ‘rifle or pistol projectile’, but this sense had effectively died out by the mid-18th century.
=> bowl
bullet (n.): 1550s, from Middle French boulette "cannonball, small ball," diminutive of boule "a ball" (13c.), from Latin bulla "round thing, knob" (see bull (n.2)). Earliest version of bite the bullet recorded 1891, probably with a sense of giving someone a soft lead bullet to clench in the teeth during a painful operation.

1. Everywhere building facades are pitted with shell and bullet holes.: 任一处的建筑物正面都布满了弹洞。

3. The bullet slammed into the ceiling, spraying them with bits of plaster.: 子弹砰地射进了天花板，掉落的石膏碎片落了他们一身。

4. His life was saved by a quarter-inch-thick bullet-proof steel screen.: 多亏一块1/4英寸厚的防弹钢板，他才捡了条命。

5. The bullet lodged in the sergeant's leg, shattering his thigh bone.: 子弹嵌进了中士的腿里，使其股骨碎裂。