Also 6 bollet(te, boolet, boullette, bullot, Sc. bullat. [a. F. boulette (in 16th c. boullette) dim. of boule ball; cf. F. boulet = 2.]
1. A small round ball. (In mod. use this sense is transf. from 3.)
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. viii. 15. Upon the braunches [of the burdock] there groweth small bullets or rounde balles. Ibid., IV. lv. 515. It [the Reed Grass] bringeth foorth his boullettes, or prickley knoppes in August.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., 241. If a Beast were made of little wax bullets sticking together.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), II. IV. iii. 261. Small gold bullets … seem to have been the current coin.
† 2. A cannon-ball (of metal or stone); sometimes cannon-bullet. Obs. exc. Hist.
1557. Recorde, Whetst., P iv b. A Gonne … doeth shotte a bollet of twentiepound weighte.
1560. Whitehorne, Certaine Wayes (1573), 33 a. If the boolet of a peese of ordinaunce waighe xxi. pounde.
1561. Stow, Chron., an. 1557 (R.). A ship before Greenwich … shot off her ordnance, one piece being charged with a bullet of stone.
1605. 1st Pt. Jeronimo, in Dodsley (1780), III. 98. Raise spleens big as a cannon-bullet Within your bosoms.
1703. Lond. Gaz., No. 3914/5. Their Forces … fired several Red-hot Bullets into the Town.
1882. Shorthouse, J. Inglesant, II. 378. More than once a cannon bullet burst into the Minster.
3. A ball of lead or other metal, used in firearms of small caliber; now often conical. Formerly also collective (cf. BALL sb.1 5 b).
1579. Gosson, Sch. Abuse (Arb.), 38. The souldier is sooner killed with a little Bullet then a large Swoorde.
1652. Proc. Parliament, No. 134. Ammunition … found in the Castle of Bradock … 700. weight of Musket Bullet.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 10, ¶ 4. The man was not hurt by the bullet.
1839. trans. Lamartine’s Trav. East, 48/1. Beschir forced his horse violently up a wall, and precipitated himself from the top of it under a shower of bullets.
fig. 1599. Shaks., Much Ado, II. iii. 249. Shall quips and sentences, and these paper bullets of the braine awe a man from the careere of his humour?
4. a. Formerly, The missile from a sling; also attrib. b. The angler’s plumb or sinker.
1587. Turberv., Trag. T. (1837), 175. The arrowes flewe from side to side, The bullot stones did walke.
1633. T. Stafford, Pac. Hib., viii. (1821), 574. Captaine Roger Harvie, receevid severall bruises with stones and Iron bullets, flung upon them.
1807. Robinson, Archæol. Græca, IV. iii. 349. In slinging, they whirled it twice or thrice about the head, and then cast the bullet.
1847. Grote, Greece (1862), VI. II. lxx. 262. The Greeks … obtained … lead for bullets to be used by the slingers.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, i. (1880), 47. It is not desirable to plunge … the bullet into the water.
5. pl. Sc. The game of bowls. [Cf. OF. boulete in same sense.]
1843. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. No. 11. 58. In the eastern district of Berwickshire the game was called bowls or bullets.
6. A term in card-playing.
1807. W. Irving, Salmag. (1824), 354. One of them … exclaimed triumphantly, ‘Two bullets and a bragger!’ and swept all the money into his pocket.
7. Phrases. † Every bullet has its lighting place. Every bullet has its billet (see BILLET sb.1 4). † Full bullet: of full size. † Bullet in mouth: ready for action (cf. BOUCHE sb.1 2).
c. 1575. Gascoigne, Fruites Warre, lxvii. Every bullet hath a lighting place.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. IV., cxxv. Some Minds are cast Full Bullett to the widest mouth of Sin.
1692. Siege Lymerick, 31. The said Garrison to march out … with Arms … Bullet in Mouth, Colours flying.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xix. It is an established axiom that ‘every bullet has its billet.’
8. Comb. and Attrib., as bullet-bag, -boy, -buttons, -gun, -hole, -maker, -mo(u)ld; and bullet-less, -like, -proof adjs.; also † bullet-bore, a tool for finishing the interior of a bullet-mold; bullet-bush (see quot.); bullet-drawer, an instrument for extracting bullets from wounds; † bullet-iron (see quot.); bullet-money (see quot.); bullet-shell, a shell used with small arms. Also BULLET-HEAD.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, III. i. 34. On his right side a *Bullet bagge or purse of canuas … for bullets.
1652. Proc. Parliament, No. 170. Behind the hangings were found 66 Muskets … and the bullet bagges filled with new cast bullets.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 55. The *Bullet-bore, is a Shank of Steel, having a Steel Globe or Bullet at one end, just of your intended Bullet size.
1876. Daily News, 18 Oct., 3/6. A *bullet boy in the Royal Arsenal, was brought up from Maidstone gaol.
1731. Mortimer, in Phil. Trans., XXXVII. 177. Prunus Buxi folio cordato, fructu nigro rotundo. The *Bullet-Bush.
1823. J. F. Cooper, Pioneer, v. 24/1. A frock of bottle-green with *bullet buttons.
1749. in Phil. Trans., XLVI. 85. The Extraction of it … by the *Bullet-drawers.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1721), Add. 3. A long *bullet-gun could not shoot a ball over it.
1679. Plot, Staffordsh. (1686), 374. Spanish or Swedish barrs, here called *bullet-Iron.
1876. E. Clark, Life Japan, 185. Throwing volley after volley of *bulletless smoke into the stubborn ranks of the enemy.
1874. Lubbock, Orig. & Met. Ins., i. 10. The species making the *bullet-like galls.
1644. Prynne & Walker, Fiennes’s Trial, 17. The said Governour … had … A Match-make[r], a *Bullet-maker.
1879. H. Phillips, Notes Coins, 13. The *‘bullet-money’ of Siam is formed by bringing together the ends of oval pieces of silver.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 52. The making of *Bullet molds.
1856. J. Grant, Black Drag., xxxvi. 167. Others … believed in *bullet-proof men, and put in a silver coin with their bullets.
