bites the bullet

Faces the pain

To bite the bullet is to accept something painful or difficult with resolve, forcing yourself through an unpleasant but necessary experience: I finally bit the bullet and scheduled the surgery.

The phrase suggests steeling oneself against anticipated hardship rather than avoiding it.

Related

swallow one's pride · commit · take the plunge · pull the trigger · do or die · decide · dare · face the music · overcome · steel oneself · man up · soldier on · grin and bear it · take responsibility · moment of truth · resolve · persevere · battlefield medicine

Opposites
confronting difficulty

bites the bulletkicks the can down the road

Delays action on something

buries one's head in the sand · avoids · evades · dodges · shirks

decisiveness

bites the bulletdrags one's feet

Delays through deliberate slowness

hesitates · wavers · vacillates · dithers · equivocates

Family

bite, bites, bitten, biting, biter, bullet, bullets, bulleted, bulletin

Familiarity
Top 100,000
Profile
Used worldwide · Timeless · Negative · Everyday, not technical · Rated PG